


Things Change

by Narsil



Series: A New Future [1]
Category: Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Continuation, F/F, Ranma-chan, Retrotech
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-28
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 17:01:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/612141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narsil/pseuds/Narsil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the failed wedding, Happosai decides to teach Ranma a lesson in obedience, and a new future opens for the Nerima Wrecking Crew and the Sailor Senshi alike.</p><p>Rated E for the first chapter only.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Happosai Strikes!

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternate history (both the world in general and the Senshi in particular) continuation for both Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2, set in a world with no space exploration, personal computers, cell phones, or anything else requiring a transistor.

  * **1943:** The U.S. Department of the Navy decides against funding the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) project.
  * **1945:** Budget issues and a management crisis at Bell Labs derail work into improved telecommunication switches. The transistor is never invented.
  * **1956-1964:** Humanity struggles to reach the stars, but both Soviet and American efforts to launch and sustain artificial satellites fail. No rocket design proves capable of carrying itself to orbit. The first primitive general-purpose computers appear to help solve rocketry problems, but they cannot fulfill the requirements of the space program.
  * **1998:** The “euro” becomes the official currency of the European Union, except in the U.K.
  * **2001:** Islamist terrorists fly hijacked airliners into the World Trade towers, the Pentagon.
  * **2005:** Claiming economic and security concerns, the European Union annexes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, and Vojvodina, creating a protectorate. Russian protests are ineffectual.
  * **2009:** European Union annexes Balkan nations.



* * *

A young girl with her shoulder-length bright red hair braided into a pigtail and dressed in oversized black tied-off pants grumbled to herself as she wrung out her Chinese-style red shirt, ignoring the sometimes-scandalized-sometimes-appreciative looks her exposed and generous firm breasts drew from passersby. _I do not believe it! How does that old woman do it? I’m even late for school and she still gets me!_

Ranma shook out her shirt, then winced and glared around at a whistle of appreciation from a young man dressed in gang colors. The punk in question paled when he realized just who he’d whistled at and hurriedly ducked down the first convenient ally, and Ranma sighed to herself. _At least the tomboy ain’t around to rag me ‘bout my lack of ‘feminine modesty’. Not that she would, now._ As she continued on toward school she thought back to a week ago, and the disastrous wedding. Akane just hadn’t been the same since that fiasco, quiet and withdrawn — not even comments on her cooking could get a reaction out of her these days, and while the peace had been welcome at first Ranma was beginning to get worried. She enjoyed the peace but was missing her spirited friend more every day.

Ranma was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed the attack from the tree overreaching the wall around the school grounds, feeling Happosai’s strike brush the hair at her temple and tug at her pigtail as she dropped her shirt and simultaneously ducked and rolled, coming back to her feet to face the diminutive Grand Master of her school of martial arts, now sitting with his back to the school grounds wall. Glaring at the gnome of a man in front of her, she snarled, “Back off, ya old freak, I really ain’t in the mood. Then again,” Ranma continued as her glare turned into a hard smile, “I _am_ really in the mood to pound on somebody, and after the way ya helped break up the wedding you’ll do as well as anyone.”

Happosai just twirled his pipe and smirked. “You really _are_ in a mood, m’boy, you haven’t even noticed the new accessory to your wardrobe.”

Ranma looked down in confusion and found a thin gold chain around her neck with a bright red ruby resting between her breasts. “What, ya giving up on panties and moving on ta jewelry now?” she asked as she reached up to remove the necklace.

“Na ah, none of that,” the old man responded, “FREEZE!” then nodded in satisfaction when Ranma suddenly found herself unable to move a muscle. “Ah, good, it worked. It’s very simple, m’boy,” Happosai explained, “you aren’t the only one that’s run out of patience. I’ve decided it’s time to truly teach my most promising student some humility and respect for his Master, and these control pendants —” motioning to an almost identical necklace around his own neck “— will finally let me do just that.”

The gnome stood and stretched, then jumped to the top of the wall. Turning his head, he ordered, “Follow me!” and jumped down onto the school grounds. Ranma fought to ignore the command, but her body ignored her demands as if they didn’t exist and smoothly jumped to the top of the wall, then down to land behind the old pervert. Happosai looked back, nodded with a leer at Ranma’s quivering breasts, then led the way to the corner of the grounds furthest from the school building. “I think some privacy is in order for this lesson. But not _too_ much,” he added with a smirk, looking back at the windows of the school classrooms clearly visible from where they stood. “Now, take off your clothes and lie down on your back.”

Now Ranma was getting desperate, mentally hammering at the walls her mind had found itself locked in, but to no avail — her body quickly removed her pants and boxers, then lay down on the grass, completely exposing herself to to the diminutive pervert’s gaze. His eyes traveled the length of her body appreciatively, lingering on her firm red-tipped mounds, and on the red bush at the fork of her legs that showed Ranma’s hair color was natural. “Ah, Ranma, it’s such a shame to hide such natural beauty. Perhaps after we’re done here I’ll have you parade around the district showing everyone what a marvelous body you have. But first things first.”

Ranma found herself unable to move even her eyes. So when she felt Happosai’s hands running over her breasts and tweaking her nipples, she was unable to even glance down, her gaze locked on the sky, her eyelids blinking regularly. She tried to shout, yell out the threats boiling in her mind, but her voice box was also locked and the only sounds that she made were her first soft moans at the pleasure radiating from Happosai’s attention to her chest as she felt a tongue join the hands, licking and suckling at her tits, and from the warmth beginning to grow between her legs. _Okay, Ranma, don’t panic,_ she thought, _this isn’t the first time the old pervert’s gotten ahold of your chest, just the most thorough. Just relax and wait it out, he can’t keep this necklace on you forever. And once it’s off, he dies. This time he’s gone too far._

Happosai smirked as he felt Ranma’s opposition ease off through the mental link the necklaces had forged. _Giving in already, boy? Or just playing possum? Either way, it’s time to take it up a notch._ “Well, enough of the preliminaries. Ranma, spread your legs!” He chuckled as Ranma’s mental resistance again sprang to life even as her legs spread themselves and he started to drool at the sight revealed. “Ranma, you have been shamefully remiss in taking advantage of the opportunities Jusenkyo and all those luscious fiancées have given you. It’s time to show you what you, and they, have been missing.” He reached down a hand and ran his fingers between Ranma’s folds. “Already wet, you’re a sensitive young girl.” He moved down and slowly ran his tongue the length of Ranma’s slit, luxuriating in the taste, then circled her clit and started sucking on it as he inserted a finger. “Hmm, no cherry. Have you actually practiced already, or just lost it in some fight?” he asked as he added another finger and started to pump. As Ranma’s body adjusted to the pleasurable intrusion, relaxing and growing even wetter, Happosai added another finger, then inserted his small hand completely up inside Ranma and pistoned vigorously, reveling as he fed off the pleasure and lust now suffusing Ranma’s chi as her body’s moans grew louder and it began to reflexively pump its hips.

Inside Ranma’s mind she was screaming, anger, hatred and helpless humiliation like she’d never known whirling and mixing together as she fought to no avail for so much as a hint of control of her own body. This just couldn’t be happening! It just didn’t work this way, a challenge would come along or Akane would get kidnapped, Ranma would find himself up against something he couldn’t beat, he’d come up with a way to beat it after all, and everything would go back to the way it was. But this ... As Ranma continued hammering at the mental walls locking her in and the pleasure pulsing from her groin throughout her body grew stronger she found herself praying that Ryoga would wander by like he so often did or Akane would come looking for her — she didn’t care what they would see, what they would say, what they would think, what they would tell others so long as it would STOP! _Please, anyone, anything, please stop this!_

And deep inside her mind, something snapped.

Happosai hummed merrily to himself as he drank in the lust- and pleasure-suffused chi that Ranma was radiating while gazing at, and pleasuring, Ranma’s naked body. Yes, he should have done this months ago! Or something like it, anyway, seeing how he’d only found the necklaces through a fluke the other day. Perhaps during the moxibustion incident? _Yes, now that Ranma’s learning what it’s really like to be a woman, her marvelous body will be mine to play with! And if she still refuses, I’ll still have the necklaces — she may be the best, but she’s hardly the only young thing around worthy of my attentions. That fiery fiancée of his, perhaps —_

Then, through the linked necklaces Happosai felt Ranma’s mental resistance collapse and started to cackle. _Yes, she’s mine, all —_ He never finished his jubilant thought as a wave of energy like he’d never felt before flashed through his hand still buried inside Ranma and he lit up as if a nova had gone off inside of him, his charred, smoking body collapsing between Ranma’s legs as the smell of roasting flesh filled the air.

Ranma’s body relaxed and her head rolled to the side as the compulsion enforced by the necklace faded with Happosai’s death. But Ranma didn’t smell the charred lump that had been her tormentor only a moment ago, or see the grass her unfocused gaze was pointed toward. Her mind was elsewhere....


	2. Memories of the Fall

A short cute blonde six-year-old girl dressed in a luxurious, if currently more than a little grubby, blue and gold pantsuit pouted as she walked between the trees lining the curving park path toward the side entrance to the palace. Looking up at the tall, slim redheaded woman that had been one of her personal bodyguards all her life, she whined, “Toshiko, it’s not fair, all the other kids get to stay at the playground!”

Toshiko chuckled as she glanced fondly at her charge before resuming her intent scanning of the grounds they walked through, the glasses she wore outlining each source of magic with the color revealing the type. “I know it doesn’t seem fair, Princess, and you don’t get to see some of those kids very often, but the party tonight is at least partly to celebrate your birthday, it’s already been going on for awhile, and the star of the party should at least show up.”

Princess Yasuko sighed and nodded. “I know, I know, ‘the ruling family has a responsibility to be accessible to its people’. I’ll be good. I was just having so much fun!”

“I know, Princess,” Amaya, the bulky brunette bodyguarding Yasuko’s left side responded, “but there will be other days. Besides, you might actually have some fun at the adults’ party, too.” She laughed as she sensed the disgusted look her young charge sent her way. “No, it isn’t likely. But it won’t happen at all if you go in determined _not_ to enjoy yourself. And your mother will be there.”

Yasuko immediately brightened and started to rush ahead, then paused as the curve of the path finally revealed the palace in all its pure white ethereal beauty. She gazed at the multi-spired building she’d called home all her short life, then lifted her eyes higher to stare at the shining orb of Earth in all its chaotic glory. She thought of the snippets of conversation she’d overheard here and there as long as she could remember. _I don’t care what everyone says about how the Earthers don’t like us much, someday I’m going to go there! Big sis did and she got through it all right, and I will too._ Then with an inward chuckle, _Maybe I’ll even find a boyfriend like she did. All the mush looks silly but everyone says it’s a lot of fun, and they can’t_ all _be wrong, right?_

Suddenly, Toshiko and Amaya both stiffened in shock as an alert sounded through the earbuds each wore, then Yasuko whirled as a huge explosion went off behind them. “That was at the playground!” she yelled even as she started to run back down the path they’d just come up. She didn’t get three steps before being swept off her feet by Toshiko, who took off running toward the palace entrance with her gun out and pointed toward the door even as Amaya somehow kept up with the two while practically running sideways watching behind them as other explosions went off farther away. Yasuko was pounding on Toshiko’s chest, Toshiko’s reflex armor softening the light blows to the point they felt like taps, and kicking her feet trying uselessly to get her bodyguard to drop her. “That was the playground, my friends are back there!”

“I know, but we are under attack and you have duties, _Princess_ ,” Toshiko responded harshly, “and your first duty is to let us get you to safety so your mother and her people can concentrate on repelling those monsters killing your subjects! Others whose job it is to risk their lives will look after your friends.” She didn’t add that from the size of the explosion there wouldn’t be much left to look after.

Yasuko stopped fighting, and after a few more seconds of a bumpy ride as Toshiko’s passenger said dully, “All right, I’ll be good. Put me down, you’ll be able to protect me better if you aren’t carrying me.”

Toshiko risked a suspicious glance downward, but on finding only dull resignation in her charge’s face nodded and paused long enough to set Yasuko on her feet by the side door. With Amaya continuing to cover their rear, Toshiko motioned Yasuko further to the side then stroked the control sensor and as the door slid open whirled so that only her head and the arm holding her pistol were in the corridor, tracking for targets that weren’t there. Immediately, the three were inside, door closed, and headed down the corridor at a trot, Amaya again moving sideways so she could cover the empty corridor behind them, both bodyguards listening through their earbuds to the reports of explosions throughout the city. Then the first wave of invaders hit.

Toshiko shouted in shock as her glasses flashed pure light straight into her eyes. “Eyes front!” she shouted even as she threw herself to the floor, bringing her charge down with her. Amaya whirled and gasped in shock even as she brought her pistol on target and a pulse of energy blew a fist-sized hole through the chest of the green-scaled vaguely female-shaped humanoid with huge curved sword-like blades in the place of hands just beyond the two on the floor. The figure collapsed, and instantly started to degenerate into sludge.

“What was that thing! ?” Amaya asked breathlessly, even as she scanned both directions of the corridor.

Toshiko rubbed at her eyes, then gazed at the rapidly deteriorating corpse through the sparkles obscuring her vision. “I don’t know, I’ve never heard of anything like it. Oh, you’re going to need to take front. When whatever it is teleported in, the flash blinded me.”

“Uh, what flash?” Princess Yasuko asked.

As Toshiko stood and helped the princess to her feet, she asked, “You didn’t see a flash?”

“No, just a weird blackish spiral kind of like our galaxy for a second, then that _thing_ was in front of us.”

“Odd,” Toshiko pondered. “Then the flash must have been from my glasses, probably a reaction of some sort to an unknown type of magic. Let the scientists work that out later, we need to get moving. Amaya, until my eyes finish clearing up you’ll need to take front. And lose the glasses.”

Amaya immediately took off her own glasses. “That’s going to make it difficult to detect any magical threats.”

“Can’t be helped — it’s going to take a few minutes for my eyes to finish clearing up, we can’t risk you being blinded right now, too.”

“Right,” Amaya agreed, then moved ahead of the other two and the three set off again down the corridor at a trot, Toshiko now the one constantly glancing to their rear.

/\

They made it through several rooms and corridors, bare minutes away from the bodyguard reinforcements moving as fast as possible to link up with them, when the next attack struck. Amaya was again at the back covering the rear, when another of the deformed green things charged out of a door the other two had just passed, thrusting a bladed “hand” toward Amaya’s gut. Amaya instinctively swung her arm to knock the attack aside, but her arm simply rebounded from the blade and she gasped as it plunged through her reflex armor, into her stomach, and out the center of her back. She felt her legs go numb and collapsed even as the gun in her other hand blew three holes through the stomach, chest and head of the thing.

Even as it collapsed and started to degrade the same way as the first, Toshiko and Yasuko were beside Amaya, the princess kneeling beside her bodyguard and helping her sit up while her partner quickly checked the room her attacker had come out of and finding no others then taking over scanning both directions of the corridor. “How are you?” Toshiko asked her partner.

“I can’t feel or move my legs, that thing must have gotten my spine. It’s going to take awhile for that to regenerate,” Amaya responded even as she killed another of the things that came around the last corner they’d come around themselves less than a minute earlier.

“Not a problem, partner,” Toshiko said. “Our reinforcements will be here in a few minutes. We’ll just wait here, safer for all of us that way.”

Another minute passed, Yasuko sitting beside Amaya and Toshiko standing, the two bodyguards facing opposite ways down the corridor. Then both adults went white as they heard a firefight break out deeper into the palace. A few minutes later they listened grimly to word of the ambush of their reinforcements, the survivors pinned in place, unable to either advance or withdraw. Amaya sighed. “That takes care of that. You two can’t stay here, you’ll have to take a detour and make your own way in.”

Toshiko nodded. “Good luck, Amaya. Come on, Yasuko, we have to move.”

“What! ?” the princess shouted. “We can’t just leave her here, she’ll be killed!”

“We don’t have a choice, _Princess._ Amaya’s been my partner as long as you’ve been alive, do you think I want to leave her? But she won’t be able to move for at least another fifteen minutes and there’s a huge number of those things just a few minutes down the corridor, at most. If we stay we all die — _you_ die. What will that do to your mother and sister?”

Yasuko’s shoulders slumped, then she nodded and fiercely hugged her wounded lifelong bodyguard as tears spilled down her cheeks. “Goodbye, Amaya.”

“Goodbye, Yasuko, it’s been a pleasure guarding you. Take care of my partner for me?”

“Sure,” Yasuko said tremulously, then stood. The two bodyguards clasped arms for a few moments, then Toshiko and Yasuko headed back down the way they had come. A few seconds after they turned the corner they heard renewed firing coming from behind them.

/\

A half hour later, an exhausted Yasuko collapsed to her knees. Toshiko glanced at the child, then resumed scanning the latest corridor. “We’re almost there, Yasuko, just catch your breath for a minute and one last push.” Yasuko nodded even as she gasped for breath, then gave a hoarse scream as she saw the now too-familiar black swirls. Toshiko whirled and fired, blowing sludge out the back of the green-scaled thing that had just materialized. Suddenly, a blade-hand slammed into her upper back, through a lung, and out her chest. Reaching across her stomach, she fired her pistol behind her, then collapsed as the fall of the thing she’d just killed yanked the blade-hand out of her chest.

Yasuko was beside her in an instant, trying to staunch the blood pouring from the wound in Toshiko’s chest, but Toshiko pushed her back and pulled out a tiny pistol and placed it in on of the princess’s bloodstained hands. Coughing up blood, she managed to gasp out, “I’m done, Yasuko, go — now!”

“Toshiko, I can’t just —”

“You have to, please!” Toshiko begged in a hoarse whisper, then coughed up more blood when she tried to continue.

Yasuko stared at her for a long moment as fresh tears poured down, then nodded. “All right, Toshiko. I love you.” She kissed her lifelong bodyguard and friend on the forehead, then turned and began running down the corridor with all the energy she had left. Turning, the corner she ran toward the door ten yards away.

Suddenly, the world seemed to go crazy, spinning uncontrollably. She felt the back of her head bounce off something, and the spinning came to a stop. _Help, mommy!_ she screamed in her mind as she caught sight of another blade-handed monster stepping out of the room she’d just passed behind her collapsing, headless body as blood fountaining from her neck stump sprayed a broad line down the wall.

Everything went black.

/oOo\

Ranma jerked upright with a throat-ripping scream, her bare breasts bouncing with the abrupt motion, then sat gasping for breath as her desperate gaze recognized the Furinkan High School grounds. _What ... I was on the moon ... Toshiko and Amaya ... but Happosai ... Happosai!_ Ranma looked down at the smoking corpse between her spread legs, charred except for the wrist of the hand still in ... desperately, Ranma thrust herself backwards and the unmarked hand popped out of her. Immediately, she fell on her side and curled into a ball, wracked by body-shaking sobs. _Mommy ..._


	3. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

A seventeen-year-old not so Chibi-Usa sighed as she gazed around Hotaru’s bedroom. Maybe the timing of her return had been a little off — sure, she’d gotten to sit up half the night with Hotaru when they should have been sleeping, catching up on the past few years; and sure, the meeting where Setsuna would announce the coming of the next big threat to the Senshi was tonight (and she was _really_ looking forward to seeing her younger mother again, not that she’d say so); and sure, she needed to sit down with Setsuna before the meeting to coordinate their stories, what they would and wouldn’t say about the new enemy. Still, the meeting wasn’t until that evening, the discussion with Setsuna wouldn’t take all _that_ long, and she could have had the gab-fest with Hotaru afterwards. It was too bad Diana hadn’t come along, but the upcoming fight was going to be straightforward enough and wouldn’t start up for awhile anyway, and she’d decided to stay home with the kittens while her past parents were visiting her present parents.

_Ah, well, what’s done is done_ , Chibi-Usa thought as she walked over to the bookshelf and looked over the titles. _Yup, lots of history books, no surprise there. Some physiology books, looks like she’s beginning to try and enhance her healing talent, great! Still, I’ll have to suggest she get some light reading, she’s entirely too serious._ Shrugging to herself, Chibi-Usa turned toward the door and headed for the kitchen. _Let’s get the talk with Setsuna over, and then take a closer look at the histories. It may be old news, but there ought to be_ something _there to keep me occupied until Hotaru gets out of school._

She was just outside the kitchen when without warning the world blacked out as her head erupted with a massive spike of pain. As the pain faded away and she once again became aware of her surroundings, Chibi-Usa found herself kneeling on the floor, her hands gripping the sides of her head, and a scream echoing in her ears. _A scream? But I didn’t ... Setsuna!_

She staggered to her feet and into the kitchen to find the Senshi of Time under the table beside a knocked over chair, curled into a ball and clutching her head and moaning. _Wow,_ Chibi-Usa thought, _Whatever that was, it hit Setsuna_ hard _. I’ve never seen her like this before, not even the mornings after the few times Puu’s gotten more than tipsy._ She pulled the emerald-haired woman out from under the table, then sat down on the floor and pulled her into her lap. “Setsuna, are you all right?” she asked, then winced. _Of course she’s not all right! Try again._ “Setsuna, do you have anything here strong enough for the pain?”

Slowly, the moaning ceased and the tall woman uncurled. “No,” she managed to croak out. “Nothing on earth can help this — it isn’t a physical problem.” She managed to pull herself into another chair, and Chibi-Usa hurriedly poured a cup of water and placed it in front of her, then righted the chair Setsuna had knocked over and sat down and waited impatiently for Setsuna to sooth her throat.

“So if it wasn’t physical, what was it?” she finally asked. “Because whatever it was hit me, too, if not as bad as it hit you.”

Setsuna’s head jerked up at that, making her wince and grab at her temples for a moment. When she’d recovered, she repeated, “You felt it, too?” When Chibi-Usa nodded Setsuna groaned. “What you felt was a temporal realignment. Being the Senshi of Time I was bound to get hammered regardless, but if you felt it as well it must have affected this timeline’s link to Crystal Tokyo.” She sighed and slowly pulled herself to her feet, leaning on the table. “Pluto Crystal Power, Make up!” A moment later, now in the fuku uniform of a senshi, Sailor Pluto disappeared into thin air, then reappeared a split second later and fell back into her chair to stare at the wall with an expression of stunned wonderment on her face.

A deeply worried Chibi-Usa sat patiently, waiting for Pluto to tell her what was going on, then impatiently, then when time continued to crawl by and Pluto showed no sign of even being aware of her presence finally spoke up. “Well, what did you learn?”

Pluto jerked, then looked over at her young friend. “Crystal Tokyo — it’s gone!”

Chibi-Usa’s world tilted as her vision went hazy. Dimly, she heard an exclamation from Pluto, then felt herself steadied in her seat just as she was starting to slide toward the floor. As the world came back into focus for the second time that day she found herself looking into the apologetic face of the Senshi of Time, now holding her in her seat with a hug.

“I’m sorry, Small Lady, that was poorly phrased,” Pluto said and smiled comfortingly down at her young friend. “Don’t worry, your home’s still there and I can still get you back, though it’s going to take awhile.”

“But ... but how is that possible? I-If Crystal Tokyo’s gone ...” Chibi-Usa stammered.

“Oh, it’s not gone — it’s just that this timeline doesn’t go there anymore.” Then Pluto sighed and, releasing Chibi-Usa, stood up and picked up the Time Staff from where it leaned against the table. “But I’m afraid an explanation, and our discussion about what to reveal about the upcoming threat, is going to have to wait — the subject of tonight’s meeting has had an abrupt change, and I need to visit an old friend immediately. Make yourself at home, there’s makings for sandwiches in the refrigerator.” And with that, Sailor Pluto once again vanished.


	4. Old Friends

Ku Lon sighed to herself as she bustled around the kitchen of the Cat Café, cleaning up from the morning rush and getting things ready for the lunch crowd. To think that an Amazon matriarch of her age and stature should be living in a foreign country running a restaurant, of all things! Of course, Japan wasn’t _that_ foreign (at least in principle), being inhabited by descendants of refugees from the Fall, but they had gotten a little ... strange ... over the millennia — not that the Amazons were ones to talk, if the oldest texts were any indication. Still, she did miss the village, with its quiet bustle, morning sounds, fresh air, old friends, and a crowd of young ones to teach.

The shrunken old Matriarch thought back wistfully to when the Amazons’ four thousand years of waiting had ended in her greatest failure through sheer bad luck, the day she got back from visiting an old/young friend in a nearby village that had just given birth to her fourth child to find the tournament in an uproar, her favorite great-granddaughter gone on a hunt for a female outsider that had beaten her in combat (!), and the Crystal Pyramid that was the special charge of Ku Lon’s family flickering. The next month, waiting for Xian Pu to return from wherever the chase had taken her with word that she’d killed the outsider that might be the Princess reborn, had been the worst in Ku Lon’s three centuries of life. And then when Xian Pu did return with word that not only was the young outsider still alive, but a Jusenkyo-cursed male ... !

Suddenly, a purple-haired, beautiful teenage girl burst through the door, bursting with excitement. {Great-grandmother! Come quick!}

“Xian Pu, what have I told you about speaking our language while living here?” Ku Lon asked sternly.

{But Great-grandmother, the Crystal Pyramid, it’s glowing!}

{What?!} Ku Lon exclaimed, grabbing her staff and pogoing out of the kitchen and down the corridor to the storeroom. Yes, the pyramid that usually just flickered whenever Ranma was within a few miles was now glowing steadily, and brightly enough to light up the storeroom from its shrine in the back. Balanced on her staff for height, with shaking hands the ancient Matriarch reached out to pick up the pyramid. _Please, don’t let this simply be some of the Senshi visiting Nerima in their full-powered forms like last time!_ Pressing her forehead to the pyramid, she concentrated while Xian Pu and a just arrived excited Mu Tse, his thick glasses perched on his forehead, impatiently watched.

After several minutes of rapt silence, Ku Lon lifted her head and reverently returned the Crystal Pyramid to its place of honor, then turned to her young helpers. {This is promising,} she said with reluctant eagerness. {Whatever burst of Silver Millennium magic activated the Pyramid occurred only a short time ago, and the distance and direction place it at the high school. The two of you must go there immediately and learn what caused the burst, if Ranma was involved, and if so what affect it had on him.}

{Does this mean that the Princess’s memories have returned, and Xian Pu and I can drop this ridiculous act?} Mu Tse asked eagerly.

Ku Lon rapped her great-granddaughter’s fiancé firmly on the top of his head. {Ranma! Not ‘Princess’, not ever until we know that she has awakened, not even in our own tongue. You never know who might be listening. And we won’t know until you find out, so hurry!}

Then a voice came from outside the storeroom. {Yes, they need to hurry, but they can drop the act. The Princess has awakened.}

The trio rushed out of the storeroom to find a tall young woman with emerald hair in a Senshi fuku and bearing a staff topped with a large garnet framed by a heart-shaped setting standing in the corridor from the dining room. Ku Lon instantly hopped down from her staff and bowed low, motioning the other two to join her. {Lady Pluto, this is an honor indeed.}

{A necessary one, I’m afraid,} the young-seeming regal woman replied, motioning the three to rise. {While she has awakened, it was a traumatic experience — more from her new memories than what actually happened to him, though that was bad enough.} She grimaced. {Pronouns are a bitch when dealing with Ranma.} Turning to the two chuckling teenagers, she reassumed her regal bearing and said, {Go, and convince — _convince —_ Ranma’s protectors to bring him — her — here. You can drop the act, but don’t mention me or any of the other Senshi to Ranma. I’ll be taking care of that later.}

The two teenagers glanced at Ku Lon, and at her nod of approval hurried off. Once they were out of sight, the two remaining women relaxed, then Ku Lon _squeaked_ as Sailor Pluto picked her up and gave her a solid hug. {Setsuna, my dignity!} she huffed.

Pluto just laughed somewhat tearfully and leaned down to set Ku Lon back on her feet. {I’m sorry, Ku Lon, it’s just so good to see you again.}

Ku Lon quirked an eyebrow at her old family friend, then motioned her toward the kitchen and pogoed ahead. Once there, she set about heating water, then pulled a tin of green tea and a couple of tea cups and saucers from the cupboard. Pluto smiled. {You remembered!}

Ku Lon glanced over at the Senshi as she set her cup of tea in front of her, not spilling a single drop from her leap onto the table. {It’s only been a few years since your last visit, I’m hardly going to forget your favorite tea in that time,} she said somewhat reproachfully.

Pluto glanced at the much older/younger woman, then sighed and slumped a bit. {Yes, it _has_ been a few years. But I did say that might be the case when we last spoke and I verified that Ranma is Princess Yasuko. The temptation to violate my rules restricting interference in order to act on Ranma’s behalf would have just been too great. I stretched them more than a little as it was.}

Ku Lon stared thoughtfully into her own cup of tea, then nodded and grinned at her guest. {Yes, you did warn me. Still, I _have_ missed our twice-yearly gossip-fests, so that just means we’ll have to make up for lost time! So what have you been up to these past two years? I know you were having problems adjusting to actually living with other people for a change, and that has to mean all sorts of juicy gossip!}

Pluto laughed gaily. {Oh, I’ve actually developed something resembling a life and a family these past few years living with the Outers. It’s been ... wonderful — if more than a little difficult after so many years alone. But the details will have to wait a bit, we need to discuss how to handle Ranma and his ... new memories and future.}

Ku Lon straightened and nodded agreement. {Right, business first, gossip later. So what’s happened to Ranma, and what are the most likely outcomes....}


	5. Enter Akane

Akane sat at her desk in a haze, staring unseeing at the teacher at the front of the class and carefully ignoring the empty desk where Ranma should be sitting (or sleeping), while her mind replayed yet again the failed wedding a week earlier. For a brief moment she’d had a vision of a happy future stretching out in front of them, only to have it all collapse in the usual Nerima chaos, and she was so _tired_! Tired of the usual rivals (she refused to think of them as fiancées), tired of the other so-called suitors, both ‘hers’ and her ‘rivals’, tired of getting kidnapped, tired of other fiancées coming out of the woodwork, just ... tired. _Everything was so perfect just after the fight with Saffron, and then ... the wedding ... it was like nothing in China ever happened._

Akane was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear the teacher ask her a question, then choose not to make a issue of it when she didn’t respond, or notice the concerned looks Yuka and Sayuri were sending her way. She barely noticed the flash of light that lit up the room through the windows. But she did, vaguely, and sat and listened disinterestedly as students rushed to the windows to see what was happening.

“What was that! ?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t see anything out there that could light up like that.”

“With everything that’s happened around here, who knows what might do that?”

“Hey, is that Ranma out there in the corner of the yard next to that smoking pile of ... something?”

“Certainly a redhead, but at that distance I’m not sure.”

“Well, if it is, she isn’t wearing any clothes.”

“She isn’t moving, either. What do you think happened?”

_Wait, Ranma, female, naked ... not moving?_ A trickle of concern penetrating the fog Akane had been moving through since the wedding, she got up and shoved through the crowd to the window and stared out at the distant figure for a long moment. _That_ could _be Ranma ... maybe. Who else could it be? And he could be in real trouble!_ Quickly, she opened the window and hopped to the windowsill, then dropped to the ground and ran toward the still, redheaded figure.

As Akane approached the now recognizable body, Ranma-chan suddenly sat up with a jerk and a throat-ripping scream like Akane had never heard from the aqua-transexual before. Ranma sat gasping for a few seconds, then suddenly thrust herself backward a few feet and, falling on her side, curled into a ball. Arriving to find her fiancé wracked by heart-rending sobs, Akane simply stared at the scene, trying to understand what was happening. _What ... what’s happened to Ranma? Is that smoking pile an animal of some sort? No, the shape is wrong — and that hand ... that’s Happosai! But why isn’t the hand burned like the rest? It’s wet ... and so’s the back of Ranma’s thighs ..._

Suddenly she _knew_ , and the last of the fog blew away from her mind with a throat-ripping shriek of her own as the world went red and tunnel-visioned while her ever-trusty hammer formed in her hands.

/\

“Akane. Akane! AKANE!”

Faintly, Akane heard the shouts and felt someone grab onto her arm, interrupting the rhythm of her swing. Slowly, as the red faded and the world broadened she found an older brown-haired girl with a page boy haircut hanging on her arm. “Nabiki?” she asked somewhat groggily, “what are you doing here?”

“Stupid question, little sis, I think half the school’s out here,” Nabiki replied, looking around at the crowd carefully keeping its distance, then down at the contents of the crater Akane’s hammering had created. “I really hope whoever that was, was already dead when you started pounding.”

Akane growled and lifted her hammer as her vision started going red again. “I don’t care, if he was alive that perverted old man deserved every bit of what I gave him!”

Her older sister quirked an eyebrow. “Happosai, was it? Well, the police might care.” Then, giving Akane a little shake, admonished, “Enough of that. Wherever that perverted dwarf is now, he’s way beyond feeling anything you might do. Besides, you’re scaring Ranma.”

“What! ?” Akane turned to find the naked, busty redhead backed away and plastered against the school grounds wall. Instantly, her hammer vanished and she started to walk toward her fiancé, only to freeze as Ranma flinched. “Ranma? I’m sorry I scared you. It’s just ... what that bastard did to you ...”

“I’m not afraid a’ nothin’,” Ranma asserted reflexively, then quietly added, “You ... you aren’t blamin’ me for anything?”

“Of course not,” Akane replied, and suddenly her arms were full with a shaking redhead, hard enough that she lost her balance and found herself sitting on the grass with Ranma in her lap clutching at her.

“They’re dead, they’re all dead!” Ranma wailed. “And they tried so _hard_ and I failed them ... and ... and my friends ...” She started to sob again.

_Okay, I have no idea what that’s about, but sort it out later,_ Akane thought. “Shhhh, easy, Ranma, I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” she murmured as she gently rocked the shaking bundle in her lap.

/\

Nabiki watched as her younger sister got Ranma settled down and shivered — she’d never _imagined_ Ranma, of all people, in such a state, much less seen it. Then, she looked around. _No teachers taking charge, of course_ , she thought with a growl, then called out, “Kana, over here, now!”

On hearing the summons, one of the group of girls standing nearby quickly ran over. “What’s up, boss?”

“Since none of our oh-so-brave teachers has come out to see what’s going on, I want you to get back to the school and call the police, let them know there’s been a death at the school, then head over to the nurse’s office and get a blanket.”

As Kana nodded and took off for the school at a run, Nabiki motioned the rest of the group of her subordinates over and quickly instructed them to help make sure the curious mob of students stayed back, ‘to preserve the scene for the police’.

Then, the teenaged fixer saw almost the last person she wanted to see, and moved to intercept a boyishly dressed girl with a large spatula strapped to her back stalking determinedly toward Akane and her fiancé. “Hold up there, Ukyo, you _really_ don’t want to disturb them right now.”

Ukyo glared at Nabiki and tried to move around her, only to be cut off again. “And why shouldn’t I want to comfort my fiancé?” she demanded.

“Because right now, doing so could be very bad for your health,” Nabiki retorted. “After the way you helped blow up the wedding last week, you aren’t one of Ranma’s favorite people, and I wouldn’t bet on his self control at the moment.”

For a second the young chef wavered, then her face hardened and she started to move around Nabiki again. “You’re wrong, Ranma didn’t want to marry that violent maniac anyway, he’s happy I helped break it up!”

“Really? And that’s why he hasn’t been by to see you since, right?” Nabiki asked, then smirked as Ukyo paused. “Besides, there’s also Akane. You aren’t likely to end up like Happosai, since he was already dead,” — _I hope_ — “but a brawl between you two right now is the last thing Ranma needs.”

Ukyo looked over at the charred and cratered remains Nabiki motioned to and paled. “That’s Happosai?”

“Yup, and good riddance.” Then Nabiki grimaced as the crowd parted to let through a tall, handsome boy in traditional samurai garb and carrying a bokken. “Besides, I need your help to stop tall, handsome, and delusional, there.”

Ukyo looked over and stiffened, glanced at Akane and Ranma, then nodded in determination and some relief. “Tatewaki Kuno,” she growled and moved to intercept the upperclassman with Nabiki by her side. “Hold it right there, Sugar!”

Kuno struck a noble pose (in his own mind) and gestured with his bokken at Akane and Ranma. “Do not seek to bar me from the side of my glorious loves in their hour of need!” he intoned.

Yeah, right,” Ukyo scoffed, coming to a stop in front of him and unsheathing her battle spatula. “If their ‘hour of need’ included the need for a punching bag, you’d be just what the doctor ordered. But considering how Happosai ended up that might not be a good idea — I could care less about Akane, but I don’t want Ranma ending up in jail.”

“Unnatural creature ...” Nabiki heard Kuno start to respond as she moved past the pair and focused on her little sister and her redheaded bundle.

As she came up to the two, she heard Akane softly humming a lullaby as she rocked her smaller fiancé curled up in her lap. “I have a blanket coming. How is he doing?” Nabiki asked softly.

Akane looked up. “He’s asleep. Nabiki, did you hear what he said about them all being dead, and how he failed them? Do you have any idea who ‘they’ are?”

“Not a clue,” Nabiki said, then grimaced as the argument between Ukyo and Kuno turned into a shouting match. “I hope Kana gets here with that blanket in a hurry, we need to get Ranma out of here before the police arrive.”

“We can’t take him home, not like this,” Akane stated. “Dad will start crying over how the schools will never be joined, and Uncle Saotome will start yelling about his ‘unworthy son’, and I don’t know if Ranma will kill them or break down again.”

“You’re right,” Nabiki agreed, thinking furiously. “But if you don’t take him home, then where?”

“The Cat Café,” the two sisters heard a familiar female voice say from the top of the wall above their heads, then Xian Pu and Mu Tse jumped down and landed beside them. Xian Pu nodded toward the quarreling chef and would-be samurai. “Mu Tse, help Ukyo keep that delusional idiot away.” Mu Tse nodded and moved toward the pair.

Nabiki stared. “Shampoo, your Japanese has certainly improved in the last week.” Then, glancing at Mu Tse, “And Mousse seems to be moving around very well, considering he isn’t wearing his glasses.”

Xian Pu nodded. “Yes, play time is over.” She looked over the scene carefully, then froze as her eyes fell on the ruby pendant still hanging around Ranma’s neck. She walked over to examine Happosai’s no longer recognizable corpse and removed the twin of Ranma’s pendant, then, ignoring Akane’s glare, she walked over and knelt to remove the identical pendant from around Ranma’s neck. Xian Pu sat back, shaking and gripping the pendants so tightly that blood started to drip from one of her hands.

Nabiki knelt down next to Xian Pu. “Okay, what are these?” she asked.

“Body control pendants stolen from the Amazons centuries ago,” Xian Pu managed to choke out. “With these, the strength of an individual’s will matters nothing, so long as the orders are based purely on physical actions and muscle memory.”

“I assume one of them is the control pendant,” Nabiki mused. “So if, say, the wearer of the control pendant orders the wearer of the other to remove his clothes, lie down and not move ...”

“The other will obey without hesitation,” Xian Pu finished, slowly regaining control of herself.

“But somehow Ranma overrode the pendant, and it killed Happosai,” Nabiki continued over Akane’s growl.

“Yes,” Xian Pu agreed, “but I don’t know how, or what the effort might have done to Ranma. But if anyone would know, it’s great-grandmother. She needs to see Ranma, to see what any possible backlash might have done to him.”

By now, it was all Akane could do to keep her hold on the smaller readheaded girl from becoming a death grip, from disturbing Ranma by shouting her anger into Xian Pu’s face. “Forget it, Shampoo,” she managed to grind out in a low tone. “After how hard you’ve tried to lure Ranma away, there’s no way I’m just delivering him to you and that scheming bitch!”

Xian Pu gazed at the pair for a few moments, then sighed. “Ranma is not my fiancé and never has been — that honor belongs to Mu Tse, and now we can finally stop pretending otherwise.” She chuckled slightly at the stunned expressions on the two girls’ faces, then knelt before Akane and the sleeping Ranma and pressed her forehead to the ground. “Akane, we Amazons have ever sought only Ranma’s good. If in the process we have injured or offended you, for Ranma’s sake please forgive and trust us just this once. Please bring Ranma to the Cat Café.”

The two girls stared at the prostrate Amazon in front of them, then at each other. _I don’t know how many more of these shocks I can take in one day,_ Nabiki thought to herself half-whimsically, then her head whipped around at the sound of wood slamming against metal, to find the expected fight finally starting between Kuno on one side and Ukyo and Mu Tse on the other. _Get with it, girl, you don’t have time to daydream._ She closed her eyes and thought furiously, then nodded and looked back at her younger sister. “Do it, Akane, right now, forget the blanket, while I stay here and handle the police,” Nabiki ordered. “We need answers, Ranma may need care a doctor can’t give, and the best place to get both is Cologne. Who else knows as much about magic?” she continued when Akane began to protest. “And whatever else, she wants Ranma healthy and sane.”

For a moment Akane seemed to swell and Nabiki braced herself for an explosive rant. But then, Akane suddenly deflated and nodded reluctant agreement. “You’re right, Nabiki, as much as I hate it.” Then, looking down at the sigh of relief from Xian Pu, added to the now rising purple-haired warrior, “But Ranma’s been hurt enough, at the least hint you’re hurting him more or trying to influence him ...”

Xian Pu carefully refrained from commenting on their comparative fighting skills, simply nodding in agreement, then glanced at the fight where Kuno was very much coming off the worse. “Understood, let’s go while the fight’s distracting people.”

Akane nodded and stood, and the pair headed toward the school gates, while Nabiki motioned those of her subordinates not involved in crowd control to approach for their orders.


	6. At the Cat Café

Ku Lon looked up from where she sat at the sound of someone coming through the front door of the Cat Café, and at the sight of Xian Pu entering felt something in her relax for the first time since her great-granddaughter had left for the school, then tighten up again when she was followed by Akane carrying an unconscious, female, and very naked Ranma — and no Mu Tse.

“Mu Tse?” Ku Lon asked her chosen heir.

“Helping Ukyo control Kuno,” the purple-haired girl responded.

“Good,” Ku Lon said with a tight smile, then sobered again as she looked over at Akane glaring at her while possessively clutching Ranma. _It looks like Akane is finally admitting how she actually feels, good — better late than never._ “Relax, child,” Ku Lon soothed, “no one here is going to hurt Ranma.” Akane’s disbelief was plain, and Ku Lon sighed. “Child, if you distrust me so much, why are you here?”

Akane faltered, and looked down worriedly at her fiancé for a moment. “Because Nabiki thought it was a good idea, and I couldn’t think of anything else to do,” she admitted in a low, slightly shaky voice.

Ku Lon nodded. “That will do for now. So, what happened to Ranma?”

After Akane related what little she knew, Ku Lon sat staring into space for a time, getting control of her voice, then turned to Xian Pu. “The pendants?”

Xian Pu handed them over wordlessly, and Ku Lon stared at the long-lost artifacts for a long moment, then in a quiet voice said, “Of all the ways for these to be recovered ... still, they don’t explain the flash of light, or the Crystal Pyramid activating. Xian Pu, fetch a couple of blankets and my special chest.”

“ ‘Crystal pyramid’?” Akane queried as Xian Pu left on her errand.

“An ancient Amazon artifact that detects a special type of magic. I’ll explain more after performing a few tests.” _Move to Mousse’s bedroom? No, Akane is too suspicious — let’s keep at least the illusion of being in public._ “However,” Ku Lon continued, “I think Ranma will be more comfortable if he were in his male form when he awakens. Please sit down.”

As Akane skittishly sat on the edge of one of the seats at Ku Lon’s table, still holding Ranma in her lap, the ancient matriarch lifted the lid of tea pot by her seat and nodded in approval at the steam that rose through the opening. _Still hot enough. Now please, let Setsuna be wrong — it does happen on occasion._ Hopping onto the table, she approached the pair and tipped out a splash of water onto Ranma’s head ... nothing. Ku Lon closed her eyes as Akane gasped. _Setsuna was right, as usual. Oh, Ranma ..._

Moving for once like the old woman she actually was, Ku Lon returned to her seat and looked up to find Akane glaring at her, her grip on the naked redhead tightening. “You can stop glaring at me, young lady, I’m not to blame for Ranma’s condition,” she said firmly, and Akane looked down, shamefaced.

“Sorry,” Akane muttered, “I’m just worried about Ranma. What’s locked his curse this time?”

“I don’t know ... yet. But I will,” Ku Lon gently replied as Xian Pu came back into the dining room, blankets in hand and a small, heavily carved and ornamented chest under her arm.

/\

An hour later, Ku Lon snuffed out the candles on the floor at each side of Ranma’s head and sat back beside the girl’s still-sleeping and now blanket-covered body, growling in frustration.

“Nothing?” Xian Pu asked quietly from the booth she was sharing with Akane, and Ku Lon shook her head.

“Nothing. It’s as if there’s nothing there to influence or detect ...”

Ku Lon’s voice trailed off thoughtfully as Akane spoke up in a worried tone. “Why is Ranma still asleep? That can’t be natural!”

“No need to worry, child,” Ku Lon soothed. “Ranma suffered a serious shock, acting as a conduit for powerful magic —” She froze in place and her face paled as her earlier thought coalesced, then whirled to the chest Xian Pu had brought and pulled out a plain, clear crystal that took on a soft glow in her hand. She reached down and placed the crystal in Ranma’s hand, then groaned as the glow radiating from the crystal vanished. Slowly, she started to pack up all the implements she had removed from the chest in the course of the last hour, only to find Akane in the way.

“What just happened!?” Akane demanded loudly, almost shouting. “What does it mean? What’s wrong with Ranma!?”

With a sigh, Ku Lon motioned to Xian Pu to finish packing the chest, and sat next to Ranma. “Akane, sit down.”

Akane hesitated, then sat when Ku Lon pointed sternly at the floor across Ranma from her, desperately trying to keep her fear in check.

Ku Lon was silent for a long moment, then sighed. “Child, physically Ranma is going to be fine. She will be weak for a time, for her at least, but should make a full recovery — physically. However, the power that used Ranma as a conduit to strike against Happosai did more than just fry a pervert — it also seems to have set up protections against the same thing, or anything like it, from ever happening again. I suspect that from here on out, no magic will ever be able to directly touch Ranma again, for good or ill.”

“But — b-but that’s g-good isn’t it?” Akane stammered. “After all the crap magic has put Ranma through he’s certainly going to think so. Why the gloom?”

“And what about the curse?” Ku Lon asked softly, brushing a hand across Ranma’s blanket-covered breasts, and Akane looked down and paled. Ku Lon nodded. “The curse is gone, and with the protection in place it cannot be given again. This is the form that Ranma will have for the rest of her life.”

Akane sat stunned for a long moment, as tears began flow. “This is going to break him,” she finally whispered, only to see Ku Lon shake her head.

“No, child, if handled properly this could actually be Ranma’s salvation,” Ku Lon asserted. “His female form was already a temporary escape from the pressures his foolish parents have placed on him, along with the rest of the chaos that swirled around him, and now it can be an honorable way out of all the contradictory obligations his father has forced on him. The only real problem, possibly, is you.”

“Me!?”

“Yes, you. For some reason, in spite of the way you’ve treated him, Ranma loves you — in the past two years you have become the most important person in her life. So how are you going to handle a permanently female Ranma? What kind of relationship are you willing to accept? What kind of support can Ranma expect from you?”

Akane stared at Ku Lon for a long moment, then turned her gaze back to the face of the diminutive redhead lying in front of her as the flow of tears slowed, then stopped.


	7. Hello

“We’re back!” Nabiki called out as she and Mu Tse walked through the front door of the Cat Café, Nabiki with a bag under her arm. “Well, Mousse is back, I guess I’m just here,” she added, looking around. The dining room was empty except for Ku Lon and Xian Pu sitting at a central table.

“Welcome,” Ku Lon said. “Where’s Ukyo?”

“After she and Mousse finished their beatdown of Kuno,” Nabiki said, giving Mu Tse an approving look, “and the police arrived, she decided that since school was called off for the day she’d open up Ucchan’s early. Where’s Ranma and Akane?” she asked as she and Mu Tse walked over and sat down while Ku Lon poured two more cups of tea. “I brought a fresh change of clothes for Ranma.”

“They’re upstairs in Mu Tse’s bedroom,” Xian Pu replied.

Nabiki quirked an eyebrow. “That was fast work,” she mused. “I didn’t think little sis had it in her.”

Ku Lon laughed as Mu Tse choked on the tea he had just started drinking, Xian Pu pounding his back. “She doesn’t,” Ku Lon replied, then sobered. “Ranma hasn’t woken up yet. I felt that was the best bed to put her in until she does — she’ll fit the bed, and it won’t be Xian Pu’s bedroom she wakes up in.”

Nabiki stiffened. “ ‘She’?” she asked with a worried frown.

Ku Lon nodded heavily. “ ‘She’,” she repeated. “The magic that killed Happosai also removed all magical influences on Ranma and set up a protection against any further magical meddling.”

Nabiki gave the ancient elder a hard stare. “And this wouldn’t have anything to do with offering Ranma refuge at your village, would it?”

Xian Pu and Mu Tse bristled, but calmed down when Ku Lon glared at them. Turning back to Nabiki, Ku Lon responded, “No, child, it would not. Even if that were our goal, this would be a poor way to do it. Sooner or later Ranma would discover the truth, and what would the killer of Saffron do to the village whose elders had so mistreated her? But as it is, Ranma’s destiny lies somewhere other than an obscure village in the backwaters of China, however prestigious its history.”

Nabiki gazed thoughtfully at Ku Lon for a long moment, then nodded acquiescence and sighed. “Ranma is not going to take this well. And how did Akane take the news? You did tell her?”

“Oh, yes, she knows. And she took it surprisingly well. She’s with Ranma right now, and I believe she’s finally thinking about what kind of future she wants with Ranma, and what she’ll need to do to get it.”

Nabiki chuckled mirthlessly. “Unless she’s had a change of orientation, that future isn’t going to be much.”

“Normally, child, you would be right,” Ku Lon responded thoughtfully. “But we Amazons have more experience with sex changes than most, thanks to Jusenkyo. It doesn’t always work out as you’d expect. But whatever they decide is out of our hands.”

Nabiki shrugged. “You’re right, there.” Glancing over at Xian Pu, she continued, “Back at the school Shampoo said that Mousse is her fiancé, and on the walk here Mousse confirmed it. So if Ranma was never Shampoo’s husband, and you weren’t trying to gain a new warrior for your tribe, what was the point of your pursuit of ‘son-in-law’ for the past two years?”

“To keep Ranma alive while giving him training,” Ku Lon said. “And yes, the next natural question is, ‘why should we care?’ I will answer that question, but only after Ranma has awakened — she more than anyone deserves some answers.” Sitting up straight, she added, “So how did things go at the school?”

Nabiki nodded at the change of subject. “Officially, if the autopsy shows what it looks like it should, the police are probably going to classify Happosai’s death as a freak lightning strike. Normally Akane would be up on charges for desecrating a corpse, but considering Happosai’s known history they are going to let that slide as well — assuming Happosai was actually dead when she started hammering on him,” she added with a slightly worried frown.

“However, Inspector Koruba, the officer in charge, wants to speak with Ranma to get the full story before he makes any final decisions. I told him what I think happened to Ranma, and he thinks forensics can verify at least part of it, unofficially of course. But Happosai’s death violates the unofficial agreement between the martial arts community and the police, and Koruba wants to find out if it was at least unintentional....”

/oOo\

Akane heard Nabiki’s called greeting, but didn’t move from her place on Mu Tse’s bed next to a sleeping Ranma. For the past hour she had sat there, gazing at her former fiancé and reviewing her past behavior in light of Ku Lon’s implied judgment. She had tried to summon the anger she found so comforting, but found she couldn’t. Ku Lon was right, and in the light of Happosai’s assault on Ranma Akane was finally seeing her actions for what they were — the acts of a spoiled, angry brat that thought the world was supposed to revolve around her — and she cringed as she thought of how she had treated Ranma when he refused to toe the line.

Akane flinched and glanced over at Ranma when she felt her shift, half hoping that Ranma was simply moving in her sleep again. But no, Ranma’s eyes slowly cracked open and looked up at the ceiling. _Moment of truth time_ , Akane thought with a sigh, then winced when Ranma glanced over at the sound and flinched. _Why didn’t I notice how jumpy Ranma was getting around me?_ Akane thought bitterly. _Please, please, please let Cologne be right, that I still have a chance._

Ranma sat up and glanced down at the shirt she was wearing, then around the room. “Where am I?” she asked somewhat groggily.

“The Cat Café,” Akane replied, “this is Mousse’s bedroom. The shirt’s Shampoo’s, though.” Ranma looked around wildly, and Akane winced again. “Don’t worry,” she said soothingly (she hoped), “Shampoo isn’t going to come bursting through the door and glomp onto you. She’s engaged to Mousse.”

“What! ?” Ranma exclaimed. “When did that happen, how did you find out?”

“Apparently, she always has been,” Akane said with a shrug. “And she told me and Nabiki when she and Mousse showed up right after —” She froze as Ranma paled and made an abortive start at curling up. Instantly, Akane had her arms around the redhead in a gentle hug. “I’m sorry, Ranma, I didn’t mean to remind you ... of ...” Her voice trailed off, as Ranma clutched at her for a moment, then stiffened and pushed back.

“It’s no big deal,” she said with forced nonchalance. “H-H-Happosai?”

“Dead, and a good thing, too,” Akane ground out.

“Good!” Ranma said forcefully, then forced herself to relax. “Well, let’s get me some pants and hot water and get back to the dojo.”

Akane felt her belly tighten. “Uh, Ranma, I’m ... I’m afraid the hot water won’t do you any good, we already tried. Cologne said that whatever fried Happosai also destroyed all magics affecting you.”

Ranma stared at her for a long moment, then shook her head. “No! Ya gotta be wrong! I ... I can’t be stuck like this!”

Akane sighed and pointed over at a tea kettle sitting on a portable burner on a nearby table. “Cologne thought you might feel like that, so here, try it for yourself.”

Ranma grabbed the kettle by its wooden handle, not caring about the heat, and started to pour ... and poured ... and kept pouring until the kettle was empty, then simply stood in the steaming puddle around her feet for a few minutes staring at the wall. Finally, she nodded. “Okay, so I’m stuck like this for awhile. Just means I need to make a trip to Jusenkyo and jump in the Spring of Drowned Boy — that’ll actually work out better, so what if I’ll be a girl when bathing, at least I won’t be turning inta one with every splash a’ cold water.”

“Uh, Ranma, th-that won’t work, either,” Akane said in a quavery voice. “Cologne says th-that now magic doesn’t affect you at all, one way o-or the other.”

Ranma stared at Akane for a long moment, then slowly stated, “An’ you believe her.” Akane jerkily nodded, and Ranma stiffened and turned to face the wall. “Well, it looks like ya get yer wish.”

“What wish?”

“The engagement’s off, and as soon as Mom and Pop find out ‘bout me bein’ stuck she’ll be pulling out the seppuku contract, Pop’ll want me ta marry yer dad ‘cause ‘the schools must be joined’, an’ I’ll be out on the street without a name when I tell ‘em all ta go ta hell. So you’re free.”

Akane stiffened as in her core she felt the oh-so-familiar anger begin to uncoil, her hand curling in preparation for the hammer’s appearance. _No! Not now! Not again, never again!_ Closing her eyes, she fought the anger back. Gasping with relief when she succeeded, she opened her eyes again to find Ranma walking toward the door and called out, “Ranma, wait!”

Ranma stopped. “Yeah?” she asked tonelessly without turning around.

“Ranma, there’s a question you refused to answer last week, and I’d like an answer now. Do you love me?”

Ranma clenched her fists and stared at the floor. “What’s it matter?”

“It matters to me. Please, Ranma, do you love me?”

Ranma struggled with herself for a few minutes that to Akane seemed to last an eternity, then finally nodded. “Yeah, I do.  Satisfied?”

Lightheaded with relief, Akane stepped up behind the smaller redhead and pulled her into a gentle hug. “Yes, I am — because that means we’re sticking together. You didn’t let Saffron tear us apart, and I’m not letting this succeed where Saffron failed!”

“But — but what about ... I’m a girl! I’m always gonna be a girl. What about ... you always call me a pervert, but ...”

“ ... but I guess we’ll have to be perverts together,” Akane finished with an only slightly forced chuckle.

“But you never been inta girls,” Ranma protested.

“No, but I am ‘into’ you,” Akane responded, “lately even when you’re a girl. I think that’s been part of my problem,” she mused. “Girls aren’t supposed to be attracted to girls, but there I was, more and more attracted to your girl side and maybe lashing out at you because of it.”

Ranma turned in Akane’s arms and looked up at her. “Really? You aren’t just tryin’ ta make me feel better?”

Akane looked down at the redhead for a moment, then leaned down and pulled a stunned Ranma into a deep kiss. It wasn’t an earth-shaking kiss, one to make Ranma’s knees weaken or her toes curl — Akane lacked experience and Ranma had a similar lack with shock added — but it _was_ heartfelt, and after stiffening for a moment Ranma softened and returned the effort. Finally, they broke the kiss and Ranma laid her head against Akane’s shoulder as tears started streaming down her face in spite of her best efforts to suppress them. Akane gently picked up the distraught girl, walked back over to the bed, and sat down with the smaller girl in her lap as she tried to comfort the grieving Ranma. “Just think,” she whispered as she rocked in place, “no more fiancée wars, no more sepukku contract and ‘manliness’ nonsense, no more ‘the schools must be joined’.”

Finally the tears stopped, and after a time Ranma pulled away and moved off of Akane’s lap while ashamedly wiping at her face. “So what about our parents?” she asked. “You know they’re gonna throw me out.”

“If your parents disown you, good riddance. Do you really need them, anyway? So you’ll be a Tendo instead of a Saotome, who cares?” Akane retorted.

“But they’re all I ...” Ranma began, when new memories resurfaced — a tall, regal (if ancient to Yasuko’s child’s eyes), but loving mother that had always tried to make time to be with her daughter every day, that would berate her when she was selfish or careless but loved her no matter what she did; a laughing, happy, gentle (if somewhat klutzy and clueless), blonde, teenage (and therefore only old) girl that was (almost always) happy to talk to and even (occasionally) play with her little sister. Beside those memories, Genma belittling Ranma over and over, bewailing his ‘useless’ and ‘honorless’ son even as he cheated and connived to add more and more to Ranma’s honor debts; Nodoka holding a sepukku pledge inadvertently made by his father in Ranma’s name over her son’s head while constantly judging his every action by a standard bizarre enough to leave everyone else shaking their heads. “No,” Ranma whispered, “you’re right. They’re not worth it.”

Akane glanced over at Ranma in surprise, then grinned. Standing up and holding out her hand, she said, “Damn right. Listen, I heard Nabiki come in just before you woke up. She stayed behind to handle the police while I brought you here, we’d better find out what’s happened.”

Ranma reached out for Akane’s hand, and together they headed for the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title comes from the song by Lionel Ritchie (yes, I'm sometimes a hopeless romantic).


	8. History Lesson

“ ... and then Great-grandmother walked in to find two six-year-olds covered in syrup, flour, and most of her rarest herbs,” Xian Pu finished as Nabiki howled with laughter while clutching her ribs.

“And as you can imagine she was not pleased with us,” Mu Tse added. “The punishment Elder Ku Lon laid on Xian Pu set the standard for the rest of my life, and what mother gave me wasn’t much better. Not exactly an auspicious beginning for our future romance, but that was how we came to be friends.”

After a few minutes, Nabiki finally got her laughter under control and straightened as she released her aching sides. Still harried by fits of giggles, she leaned back in her seat and gasped for breath. “Okay, _that_ I did not expect.”

“What _did_ you expect, child?” Ku Lon asked. “Something like the Spartans of ancient Greece, single sex barracks and men treated like breeding stock?”

“Something like that, from the way you ... acted ...” the brown-haired girl agreed slowly, pursing her lips thoughtfully. “But then, that’s what you wanted us to think, wasn’t it?”

“Very good, Nabiki,” Ku Lon said, “that is correct. We needed to increase the pressure on Ranma while stalling his marriage to Akane, but we didn’t want him getting attached to Xian Pu, either. So she played the part of the sexually aggressive bimbo, with Mu Tse acting the insanely jealous suitor.”

“WHAT! ?” At Ranma’s shout, the four sitting at the central table in the Cat Café’s dining room turned to find the pigtailed redhead standing in the doorway from the back, apparently her usual self except for the hand clutching the hand of the taller girl beside her. “You mean Akane was right! ? But ... but ... why ...”

“Why would we put on such an act?” Ku Lon asked gently, a tone Ranma had never heard from the shriveled ancient before.

“Well ... yeah ...”

Ku Lon sighed. “A good question, and I will give you a good answer — but first, some questions. Come, sit,” she commanded, motioning to the two empty chairs across the table from her. As the two took their seats, still holding hands, Ku Lon continued, “Did Akane tell you that your curse is gone, and cannot be restored?”

“Y-yeah,” Ranma stuttered, and Akane suppressed a wince as the grip on her hand tightened.

“The reason for that is simple. The pendant the Pervert Thief used on you bypassed the upper functions of the mind, focusing on pure muscle control. As a result, your strength of will, _highly_ impressive for a child your age, meant nothing.”

Ranma bristled. “Hey, I ain’t no kid!”

Ku Lon chuckled. “Ranma, to me, almost _everyone_ is a child — the number of people that are not I can count on two hands, and only one that can look on _me_ in the same way. But still, usually even the most accomplished of practitioners of the Arts do not attain your level of sheer willpower without decades of effort. I suppose we can thank your father for that, though how you survived the decade of training he put you through I will never know.

“Still,” she continued as Ranma relaxed, “you are unique only in your age. The village has been producing the occasional warrior of your caliber for centuries, and not all of them have turned out to be honorable and good people. And warriors such as you — chains cannot hold them, mind and personality alterations soon fail, outright mental control is temporary at best when it works at all. So the Amazons created the necklaces used against you for those occasions when we needed to imprison and judge such a one. Unfortunately, they were stolen from us centuries ago, and how the Pervert came to have them I suppose we will never know.”

Ku Lon paused for a moment, taking a sip of tea as she waited for a stunned Ranma to grapple with what she’d just heard.

“But ... but if willpower is useless,” Ranma finally asked, “then how did I break free?”

“Ah, and there we come to the center of things,” Ku Lon responded. “I believe that when willpower proved useless, you instinctively turned to another source of strength, and when you did that power simply flooded through your link to destroy all other magical influences through sheer power, though I admit I can’t explain the new protection against further influence. Still, you were able to tap this power only because of your ancestral heritage — but a heritage of the soul rather than the body.”

Ranma, along with Akane and Nabiki, stared uncomprehendingly, and Ku Lon sighed. “Tell me, Ranma, does the name ‘Yasuko’ mean anything to you? How about the names “Amaya’ and ‘Toshiko’?”

Ranma shot to her feet and slammed her hands on the table and glared at Ku Lon. “How do you know those names, ya ole ghoul? Did you give me those — those images?”

“No, Ranma, I did not — _can_ not,” Ku Lon said gently. “And you don’t really believe that, do you? Those aren’t images, they are memories — memories of another life.”

Ranma held the glare for a minute, but slowly relaxed and sat back down, nodding slowly. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know how I know, but you’re right — they’re memories. But from where?”

“ ‘From when’ is a better question,” Ku Lon said, “and the answer is four thousand years ago.” At the disbelieving looks from Ranma and the Tendos she chuckled, then sighed. “I know we Amazons like to boast of three thousand years of Amazon traditions, but our memories go back even further, another thousand years and beyond.

“Over fifty-five hundred years ago humanity discovered magic — not like it knows of it now, as an art practiced by some of the few that can sense its flows, but as a science, to be harnessed and tethered by artifacts and put into the hands of the common people. In truth,” Ku Lon admitted, grimacing, “I think I prefer our current view — the scientific mind gives greater results, but takes much of the awe and mystery out of it, not to mention being _very_ dangerous.”

Ignoring Nabiki’s quirked eyebrow, the Elder continued, “Still, however dangerous it may be, it _is_ useful, and through the magic power they harnessed humanity reached for the other planets around our sun, colonizing all those planets they could and the moons of those they couldn’t. Then, several centuries after they’d colonized all our solar system, a queen rose to power in the Moon Queendom. Through diplomacy and, on occasion, force of arms she eventually united all the other planets under her authority, and then at last mother Earth. Then, having united our worlds, she reached for the stars — and achieved them, creating a stellar empire in the process. For a thousand years she ruled the Moon Queendom and our interstellar allies and protectorates wisely and well.”

By now, Nabiki was shaking her head in disbelief. “No way, just no way! That would bring us up to two thousand B.C., and we _know_ what was going on then, in general at least. There’s simply no room in history for a united Earth and an interstellar empire!”

“Right you are, child,” Ku Lon agreed, “but you are getting ahead of the story. Earth had always been an uneasy part of the Moon Queendom, handled gently and even that gentle handling often resented. Four thousand years ago, a member of Earth’s Senate used that resentment to propel herself to power, and used that position of power to set up a truly monstrous ritual, the most monstrous in all history. Then, when a special celebration was occurring at the Moon’s capital, one that was attended by many of the movers and shakers of the Empire as well as all of the Queen’s most powerful protectors and enforcers, Senator Beryl struck. She cast a massive summoning spell, powered by the mass sacrifice of almost the entire population of Earth — fueled by the deaths of billions, Beryl opened portals on all the other worlds of the Empire and demons flooded out for rampage and slaughter.”

Ranma gasped, looking sick as fresh memories returned. “My birthday party ...”

“Yes, Ranma,” Ku Lon agreed sympathetically while the others stared as the petite girl began to shake. Akane reached out and put an arm around Ranma as she glared at Ku Lon, but the Elder ignored her and continued. “You and your immediate bodyguards were among the first on the Moon to die that day, but hardly among the last. After hours of slaughter, Senator Beryl withdrew the demons from the Moon and led her own armies against the survivors. But to her surprise, those survivors were not as broken as she’d thought and we held ... and held ... and held, while the Queen and her surviving advisors sought an escape and future for the few surviving subjects she could help.

“You see, the demons had not rampaged randomly, but instead targeted the machinery and power sources that made civilization possible, and they had done their work well — most of the survivors on her worlds would not last for long as their supplies dwindled and could not be replaced. And in the end, with time running out, she found an answer. The two most powerful of the Queen’s enforcers, Lady Pluto and Lady Saturn, joined their powers, Lady Pluto searching through all of history’s myriad possibilities seeking an Earth where magic had not been discovered, and when she found it she fed the knowledge of that Earth to Lady Saturn. In turn, Lady Saturn took that knowledge and reached out and remade Earth in its image, reshaping its landscape as well as the memories of those few Earthers not slaughtered to power the summoning, so that they would fit into the new world and remember it alone. This reshaping proved as powerful as Beryl’s own summoning, and more than the two could handle — Lady Saturn died from her efforts, and Lady Pluto almost died and was permanently crippled.

“But though it had cost Queen Serenity” — Ranma jerked at the name — “two of her most powerful defenders and almost her closest friend and advisor, it had broken the magic holding the demons in our worlds and given her surviving people on the moon a place to go, and while the army and her surviving defenders continued to hold Beryl’s army back those survivors passed through portals opened to the new Earth. Among those refugees were the survivors of her daughters’ bodyguard detachments, given the task of keeping a comatose Lady Pluto safe until she could recover. Then, her surviving people safe, she led the remnants of her army in an attack on Beryl’s personal regiment. In the end, both Beryl and the Queen died, as did all of the queen’s defenders and army to the last woman and man. Beryl’s forces held the Moon alone, but were trapped there to die as the habitats failed one after another.”

Ku Lon paused to take a sip of her tea, then looked around at all the stunned faces staring back at her. Nabiki was the first to recover, leaning back and also looking at the other stunned looks, including those on the faces of Xian Pu and Mu Tse. “I take it this is not common knowledge even among the Amazons,” she commented dryly.

“True,” Ku Lon agreed with a chuckle. “While a more general legend is taught to all of our people, the details are known only by the Elders — being told the deeper history is part of a new Elder’s initiation.”

Xian Pu laughed. “That would explain the bemused looks so common to a new Elder — and none of the speculation about that came close to the truth!” Mu Tse joined in the laughter, then Nabiki, until she looked over at Ranma to find tears pouring down the younger girl’s cheeks as Akane pulled her onto her lap and cuddled her mourning love. Nabiki’s laughter choked off at the sight, as did Xian Pu’s and Mu Tse’s as they followed Nabiki’s gaze.

“Mommy ... Usagi ...” Ranma whispered, and Ku Lon sighed and in that gentle tone that was still such a surprise to the Tendo girls, said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but remember, Ranma, all of this was around four thousand years ago. Everything you remember is long gone.”

Ranma nodded and wiped at her face, then gave a half-chuckle, half-sob. “Not everything. I remember looking up at Earth in the sky over my home and thinking how beautiful it was, and how much I wanted to go there ...”

“ ... and now here you are,” Ku Lon finished with a nod. “Which is a good lead in to the next part of the story ... the survivors.”

Nabiki leaned forward at that. “Yes, the survivors ... the ones that knew all about magic even if everyone else on earth didn’t. So why didn’t they carve out their own magical empires here on Earth, and why don’t we know about them?” she demanded.

“But they did, and we do,” Ku Lon replied calmly. “But they had two problems — first, there weren’t very many of them, even by comparison to Earth’s much-reduced population, and second, while they knew how to _use_ magic, or better said the magical devices they brought with them, they didn’t know how to _make_ them. So they carved out pocket kingdoms and queendoms in the West, but their power lasted only as long as their devices. When those failed, they faded into legend as the Sidhe and the Tuatha de Danaan, the Aesir and Vanir — possibly the Olympians as well.

“But before that happened, two groups broke off from the rest and migrated. The leaders of the surviving bodyguards of the princesses realized that eventually their power would fade. After Lady Pluto recovered and left to carry out the last requests her friend and sovereign had left her, they decided that they would not stay. Instead, they reached out to the Earther survivors around them and learned the skills they needed to survive and prosper without magic, and then they left on their own long migrations.

“In the end, the descendants of Princess Usagi’s regiment settled in Japan, spreading out and conquering the entire island. The modern Japanese are directly descended from that regiment.

“However, the survivors of Princess Yasuko’s regiment were much fewer in number because of the deaths we incurred in our attempt to reach her in the early hours of the attack, and because of how after our failure we were constantly in the forefront of the fighting seeking vengeance and atonement in death. It took the direct command of the Queen and some secret discussion with the regiment’s surviving commanders to convince us to leave with the other survivors. In the end, we settled in the mountains of China, and there we have survived these three thousand years that we boast of.

“So for millennia we stayed in the background and trained, and waited for our princess to return. And eventually she did, or rather, _he_ did — when a boy cursed to turn into a girl and his stupid panda of a father visited our village and promptly left with Xian Pu chasing the boy she thought was a girl. I was gone that day, helping an old friend in another village, or things would have turned out very differently.”

“Yeah, with Ranma locked as a girl and made into your pampered pet!” Akane snapped as her embrace around Ranma tightened.

‘Wrong, on both counts!” Ku Lon returned sternly. “Tell me, Akane, did you ever wonder how, in a village of woman warriors, Mu Tse received the training he needed to become one of our best fighters?”

Akane froze, then closed her mouth with her hot retort left unsaid and shook her head.

“It is very simple, child. We knew that the chance that our princess would be reborn female in any given lifetime was a coin toss, and that, given the ways of the new world we found ourselves in, it would most likely be a male incarnation that would find us. And yes, that means that we _expected_ to most likely have a male ruler at some point, but we were willing to accept that for the sake of our duty! And so we have always trained our most promising males in the ways of war, to make sure that in such a case there would be those that would be able to accompany him into whatever place he visited and situation he found himself in.

“And as for the ‘pampered’ part of your accusation, how many of the most famous nobles of your own people’s history were made famous through death in battle, leading their people against their enemies? A warrior people expects its leaders, those physically capable at least, to _lead_ , and we Amazons are no different!”

Akane dropped her gaze, shamefaced, and muttered an apology, as Ku Lon took a deep breath and visibly calmed herself.

“I must offer my own apologies, child. Given how we Amazons have acted, your suspicions are perfectly understandable. You have no idea how happy I am that we can drop the act, now.”

Ranma looked up from her cuddle in Akane’s lap as she wiped again at her face, then accepted the napkin Nabiki passed her. “Yeah, about that act — why? Why put me through all that?”

“Because of who you are and the life you would be facing,” Ku Lon replied, her expression turning gentle again as she turned her attention to her princess. “The Amazons have an ... ally ... known only to the Elders and a scattering of others as the need arose. This ally is able to see what the future might bring, and once Xian Pu returned to us after she learned of your curse we had some questions for our ally’s next visit. She told us that the chances that you would survive the next several years were poor, and that if you did you would most likely be married to Akane, if unofficially thanks to Japan’s bizarre laws, within a year and dead before three more had passed — either at Akane’s hand, or rather hammer, in a fit of temper, or by your own hand after finally losing control and killing your wife.”

Ranma and Akane immediately began heated denials, only to quiet at a stern look from the matriarch. “Be honest, children,” she reproved sternly. “Considering today’s events, can you truly say what might have been is impossible?”

Akane began another hot retort, only to stop at the memory of Nabiki grabbing her arm, interrupting her swing as she shouted in her ear to bring her out of her rage. “No,” she whispered in a choked voice, “I can’t. Oh, Ranma, I’m so sorry!”

“Fer what?” Ranma responded. “It didn’t happen.” Looking at Ku Lon, she added, “I guess we owe the ole ghoul a big favor for that,” then yiped as the ‘old ghoul’ leaned over and rapped her on the head. “Hey, is that any way ta treat a princess! ?”

“When a princess acts like one, I’ll treat her like one,” Ku Lon responded amidst the laughter from the other teenagers around the table, before adding her own chuckles to the chorus. “Now, I think that’s enough of a history lesson for the day, we need to decide where we go from here.”


	9. More Old Friends

At a hilltop Shinto shrine, a seemingly old priest stood at the head of the stairs looking out contentedly at the long-known and loved view. After a time, a smile came to his face and without turning, he spoke to the empty air. “You can come out, Amaterasu.”

A mild curse came from the trees behind him, and an emerald-haired woman in a business suit stepped out and walked over to stand beside him as he chuckled. “You are in a good mood,” Yosho opined, “that curse was unusually mild.”

Setsuna laughed. “I suppose it was, but I _did_ manage to get within fifteen feet before you noticed me this time, I think that’s the best I’ve done.” She gazed out across the valley before them, and a pensive look came across her face.

Yosho glanced her way, and sighed at the look.  “I see this isn’t simply a friendly visit,” he said. “Would you care for some tea?”

“Always,” the Senshi of Time responded, and the two turned toward the shrine.

/\

The formalities completed, Setsuna took a sip of tea and happily sighed. “Only the best, as always,” she said contentedly, and Yosho chuckled.

“Of course, he said offhandedly. “How else am I to tempt the world’s busiest woman to relax and enjoy the moment every decade or so?” Then he tensed slightly as the smile ran away from his old friend’s face to be replaced by ... he wasn’t sure what — happiness, anger, sadness, resignation, he’d never seen such a mix of emotions on that oh-so-familiar young-old face before. Carefully, he set down his tea cup and leaned forward. “Something has happened, Setsuna; can you talk about it?”

The odd mix of emotions vanished as Setsuna wryly chuckled. “Some, at least,” she said. “There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the little princess has awakened, and the impact on the future will be ... magnificent, enough that I won’t be taking that decades-long break I wasn’t looking forward to.”

The happy smile on the old man’s face at the news was genuine, but not unalloyed as he waited for her to continue. When she didn’t, gazing thoughtfully into her tea cup, he prompted, “That is very good news, indeed, I know how much you’ve missed the little one. And the bad news?”

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Setsuna sighed. “The bad news is that ... that ...” she fell silent, then visibly gathered her courage and finished in a rush, “I’m afraid the timetable for your own long vacation has been moved up considerably. And extended to centuries — possibly permanently, except for visits.”

Yosho stiffened, then rose and slowly walked over to the doorway and out to gaze again across the valley. Setsuna set down her own tea cup, then walked up behind him and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Yosho.”

He reached up and laid a hand across her own. “It’s all right, Setsuna, I know you would not ask this of me if it wasn’t necessary. How long do I have to get everything, and everyone, packed up?”

“A ... a few months,” she answered hesitantly, and he sucked in a breath.

“That fast — things must have changed drastically, indeed.” When the priest felt her hand on his shoulder tighten, he chuckled. “Don’t worry, Amaterasu, I will maintain my blissful ignorance, and your people will be safe.”

“From your people, at least — better said, your _other_ people, this is your home as well,” she gently reminded him, and he nodded agreement.

“True, and thus the blissful ignorance. Funaho?”

“Another good thing about this change, _now_ I can guarantee your tree’s safety; it will be waiting for you when you return,” Setsuna assured him, and a broad smile blossomed on his face.

“Well, that _is_ good news.” Then, sobering, “And will I see you again before we leave?”

“No, Yosho, you won’t,” Setsuna said, dropping her gaze, voice so low he was barely able to hear the words.

He turned around and pulled his long-time friend into a hug.  After a few minutes he released her, and said in a determinedly upbeat tone, “In that case, your workout clothing is in its usual place, do you have time for one last match? We can get each other cleaned up afterward,” he added with a lascivious leer so over-the top it startled a laugh from her.

“Of course,” she said with a tremulous smile, “I wouldn’t miss a chance at your training in either Art for anything.”

/oOo\

Hours later, a freshly cleaned and pleasantly tired Setsuna knocked on the door of a Buddhist temple, and a brown-haired girl with blue diamond tattoos on her forehead and each cheek answered the door. “Nimue!” Belldandy shouted joyfully as she threw herself forward and embraced the taller woman, and Setsuna felt something in her relax as she returned the hug.

A few minutes later, the two were kneeling at the dining table, nibbling on refreshments and catching up on gossip, the Senshi of Time shaking her head in amazement and laughing at the recent events in her friend’s life. “Well, it looks like you beat me to it, after all — or will, whenever that paragon of virtue you’ve fallen in love with gets around to settling on a date.”

With an inscrutable smile that went oddly with her blushing cheeks, Belldandy said, “We shall see.” Then, turning serious, she asked, “But as good as it is to see you again, I’m sure catching up on the last few centuries isn’t why you’ve dropped by. What can I do for the Lady of the Lake?”

Setsuna threw her oldest friend a sharp look. _She knows I haven’t used that title in fifteen hundred years, why is she using it? Maybe a warning about hubris? Or taking on too much? Or getting too involved?_ She chuckled inwardly to herself. _No point in asking, her restrictions make mine look like wide-open permission, and are a lot more rigidly enforced._ Aloud, she answered, “As wonderful as it is to see you again, you’re right. I’m here on business. I know Yggdrasil is to the Time Gates what the Gates are to an abacus, and with a change this extreme the news is bound to have spread like wildfire. So you have heard about Princess Yasuko’s awakening?”

A pensive look crossed Belldandy’s face as she nodded. “Yes, you are right — news of what happened, and what it means, has spread _very_ quickly.”

“So why the long face?” a suddenly worried Setsuna asked.

Belldandy hesitated, then responded, “Because of Happosai.” At Setsuna’s incredulous stare, the goddess continued, “I know there was little chance that he would change his ways, but now that chance is gone and he is Hild’s to play with.”

Setsuna shook her head, half-admiringly, half-reprovingly. “He’s been Hild’s for centuries, Belldandy, she just hadn’t collected him yet. You can’t save everyone, you know.”

“I know,” Belldandy said sorrowfully, “but if he had made just a few different decisions he could have been a powerful force for good — it’s such a waste of potential, and he would have been a _much_ happier man.”

“I suppose it reflects poorly on me that it feels like you’re much too forgiving,” the emerald-haired woman said, frowning ruefully. “Anyway, I know you can’t tell me anything definitive about the future that’s now likely to come, but one question you probably _can_ answer — how are the demons likely to feel about this turn of events, will they try to reverse it?”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that, they’ll be overjoyed,” Belldandy responded instantly. Then, at Setsuna’s slightly doubtful expression, explained, “Remember, Niflheim is as much about guiding human souls as Asgard is, and the new future gives both sides greatly expanded opportunities. If anything, they’ll help you out. And how about you? How to you feel about this?”

“Well, it isn’t an unalloyed good, Ranma’s been through hell and both she and her friends as well as most of the Senshi will have to give up or postpone some dreams to do things they would rather not, but — but at least I w-won’t have to stand aside and d-do nothing while o-o-over six billion people ... die, and ... and Hotaru ...” she managed to say before her throat closed up, and Belldandy moved around the table and pulled her sobbing friend into a hug, Setsuna’s head on her shoulder, tears of relief and joy soaking into Belldandy’s blouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm normally going to avoid giving too much away about what's coming, but I think it's safe to reveal that the Oh My Goddess! and Tench Muyo! casts are not going to play a major role in these stories, or even a minor one. The thought simply occurred to me that Setsuna is still human and so a social animal, and as an immortal she's going to want friends that don't die on her in a few decades just to stay sane. Besides, it gave me the chance to show a little (very little) of what she's been doing before the Senshi ever woke up and a touch of her character.


	10. Police Attention

“ _Today, as the joint European Union military moved into Bosnia, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. spoke out strongly against the European Union’s continued annexation of Balkan nations and called for an economic boycott of non-agricultural goods from the E.U.’s member nations. The response in the General Assembly was tepid ...”_ Kasumi turned off the radio she had been listening to as distraction from her worries at the sound of someone entering the front door and relaxed somewhat as Akane called out her arrival, then tensed up again when no additional call came. She quickly moved the evening’s dinner off the stove and hurried out to meet her youngest sister. “Akane!” she called, “is Ranma with you?”

“He ... she and Nabiki stopped at the infomat on the way home to do some research,” the black-haired girl responded, taking off her shoes and putting on some house slippers.  “Nabiki said it wouldn’t take very long, they should be along in about a half-hour.”

Kasumi sighed with relief even as she felt a trickle of worry at Akane’s change of pronoun. “Good, an Inspector Koruba stopped by looking for Ranma. He refused to discuss why he wanted to speak with him, and I was afraid something terrible had happened.”

Akane winced, and Kasumi’s worry spiked. “Uh, Kasumi, something did ... happen.  Ranma’s okay ... sort of ... I think, but he ...” She trailed off as her voice grew shaky, and Kasumi put an arm around her youngest sister’s shoulders.

“Why don’t I make up some tea and then you can tell me all about it.”

/\

“ ... and Cologne offered Ranma a room and job at the Cat Café, but he said no, she’d done enough for him already, that he could take care of himself, the idiot,” Akane finished, laughing shakily, kneeling at the dinner table in the family room.

Kasumi simply sat still for a moment, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Do you think that means he doesn’t believe Elder Ku Lon?” she asked calmly.

Akane thought for a moment, then said slowly, “Nooo, I think he — she — believes her, believes the memories are real, h-she just doesn’t _trust_ her. And I don’t blame her at all, after all the crap she’s pulled,” she continued with another shaky laugh.

“Language, sister,” Kasumi reproved gently even as she considered what she’d just heard, and added thoughtfully, “The parents aren’t going to take this at all well.”

“Right,” Akane agreed, “at least one good thing will come out of this — when they throw Ranma out of the family and Dad throws them out of the house, we can adopt Ranma into the family and maybe life will get back to something more normal without that fat bastard around to keep Dad stirred up about ‘joining the schools’!” she finished with a growl, tensing up at the thought and her hand curling, a little red light flickering in the gap between her fingers and thumb. With a visible effort she relaxed and stood up. “I’ll be in my room,” she said, heading for the door.

Kasumi also stood, watching her sister walk out. _I really hope you’re right about how Father reacts, little sis, but I’m afraid you’re probably wrong. I hope Ranma and Nabiki know better._ Sighing, she headed for the kitchen and her interrupted preparations for dinner.

/oOo\

Ranma and Nabiki walked down the street in silence. Nabiki glanced over at Ranma, noting the way her arms were crossed under her breasts, and sighed inwardly. Looking away, she noticed a car parked across the street from the dojo and grimaced at the familiar face in the driver’s seat. “Head’s up, Ranma, we’ve got company.”

“Huh?” the redhead asked, jolted from her thoughts and looking around quickly as she tensed up.

“Not _that_ kind of company, sorry,” Nabiki apologized, nodding toward the man in a business suit getting out of the car across the street. “That’s Inspector Koruba, the one in charge of the investigation into what happened at the school.”

_Hmm,_ Ranma thought, relaxing as the inspector approached. _In shape and trying to hide it, he moves pretty well, some training, he might actually last a few seconds if we fought._ Then what Nabiki had just said registered and she froze.

“Good afternoon, Ranma, I’m Inspector Koruba,” the inspector said as he approached, pulling out and showing his identification, while nodding to Nabiki. “I’ve been placed in charge of investigating the death of Happosai and need to ask you some questions.”

“Of course, Inspector,” Nabiki responded after a moment, nudging Ranma when the pigtailed girl remained silent and frozen in place. “Please come in.”

Leading the other two into the house, she called out, “We’re home! And we have company, Inspector Koruba with some questions for Ranma.”

Kasumi walked out of the kitchen with her usual placidly friendly smile firmly in place. “Oh my! Welcome, will you be staying for dinner?”

“No, thank you,” Inspector Koruba said with a shallow bow. “I just need a few things cleared up with Ranma and I’ll be on my way.” Looking at her he asked, “Is there somewhere private we can talk?”

“Yeah, right,” a voice growled from the head of the stairs, and everyone looked to find Akane glaring down. “You aren’t asking a single question without me there!”

Kasumi looked mortified, but Nabiki nodded. “While I would have been more polite about it, Akane’s right — we should be there.”

Koruba met Nabiki’s level gaze, then glanced at the now slightly shivering redhead and nodded. “I suppose you are right.”

/\

“ ... then I woke up at the Cat Café, where they’d taken me to get me away from the crowd,” a pale and shaking Ranma finished from where she sat in Akane’s arms, Kasumi sitting next to them and holding Ranma’s hand.

“So, does that take care of everything you need, Inspector?” Nabiki calmly asked from Ranma’s other side, giving her a poorly-concealed concerned look, and Kuroba nodded thoughtfully from where he sat in front of the three.

“It does,” he said, “and fits with what we’ve learned.” Glancing at Akane, he continued, “In spite of the massive amount of blunt trauma, the cause of death was some sort of energy discharge — forensics is calling it a freak lightning strike. And while I’ll never repeat this outside of this room,” he added, looking sternly at the four girls before him, “even if the blunt trauma had been the cause of death we would have found some way to disregard it, after what we found on the hand that wasn’t charred. I wouldn’t have blamed any of you for killing Happosai, and it isn’t like we would have been able to arrest him ourselves or hold him if we somehow succeeded. However,” he continued, focusing on the sister in the middle and the girl in her lap, “this is still a serious escalation of the conflicts this district has suffered, and I don’t want it to happen again if at all possible.”

“You don’t need to worry, Inspector,” Nabiki spoke up. “While the details are personal, the situation has changed. I believe you will find things much calmer around here from now on.”

Koruba stared sharply at Nabiki for a long moment, then nodded thoughtfully and stood. “I see. I hope you are right. In that case, I will be on my way.”

Letting go of Ranma’s hand, Kasumi stood and escorted the inspector to the door, Inspector Koruba once again refusing an offer to stay for dinner.

Nabiki gazed at the other two girls left behind for a moment as she listened to Kasumi say goodbye to the inspector then head for the kitchen, then sighed and stood up as well. “I have some calls to make and things to take care of in my room, I’ll see you two at dinner,” she said offhandedly as she headed for the doorway.

The last two left sat quietly for a time, Akane simply holding Ranma as her shaking eased off and disappeared. Finally, Akane said, “Ranma, I think we both need to clean up before dinner.”

The smaller girl stirred and nodded. “You’re right, why don’t ya go ahead and I’ll clean up when you’re done.”

“No, there’s no reason why we can’t clean up at the same time,” Akane disagreed, and felt Ranma stiffen in her arms.

“But ... but ... I’m ...” Ranma stuttered, only to be cut off by Akane’s only slightly forced chuckle.

“Ranma, you’ve seen everything I’ve got a couple of times already, and the same goes for me.”

“I-If you’re sure ...” Ranma said, and Akane moved her off her lap and stood up, then offered a hand to help Ranma rise.

“I’m sure,” she said with all the certainty she could muster, and after a moment Ranma accepted her hand up and the two headed for the furo.

Outside the window, a purple-haired cat slipped around the house toward the furo’s window while a duck flew away in the direction of the Cat Café.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The infomat is this reality's version of the internet as an information source — an office holding a central data-store and a number of interface booths (about the size of a phone booth) where users can input questions. The data-store has enough data stored to fill hundreds of volumes of encyclopedia, dictionaries, and other references, and can do a search through the entire database and compile an answer to most questions within minutes, though more complicated answers can take longer and, of course, poorly worded questions can give odd and/or misleading answers.


	11. Shattered Dreams

{... and then I returned while Xian Pu continued the surveillance,} Mu Tse finished his report where he and the aged matriarch were seated in the Cat Café’s empty dining room, in their native tongue to cut down on the possibility of eavesdroppers.

Ku Lon nodded thoughtfully.  {So the princess is clear of all suspicion with the law,} she mused thoughtfully. {I am uncertain whether that is a good or bad thing — suspicion from the law could help send her to the village, but that could interfere with Lady Pluto’s plans, and _that_ is always ... chancy.}

The duck-cursed boy stared in confusion at his elder. {I don’t understand. Isn’t the princess the daughter of Lady Pluto’s shield-friend as well as her liege? That’s what you said to the princess.}

{And I did not lie,} Ku Lon agreed. {However, Lady Pluto has taken on the task of rebuilding civilization from the ashes of the Fall, and she is willing to allow horrible fates to come to those she loves if that is what the future calls for. As well, there are times that near-term pain leads to long-term happiness, and Lady Pluto is better than most at seeing what the long term will bring. Best to not get in her way if possible while fulfilling our duty.}

Mu Tse looked thoughtful and opened his mouth to respond, only to be interrupted by the sound of someone hammering on the door and the voice of Tatewaki Kuno demanding to be let in, in his usual flowery speech. Ku Lon shooed Mu Tse toward the door. “Let him in, we may as well get this over with,” she said with a sigh.

Mu Tse unlocked and opened the door, and Kuno strode in, the usual bokken strapped across his back, ignoring the one he considered a servant to focus on the Amazon matriarch sitting at the table in the middle of the room. “Agéd crone,” he intoned in his most sonorous voice, unconsciously striking a pose that he would have considered of noble bearing if he had been aware of what he was doing, “where have you secreted my loves? Tell me, for they will have need of my presence to gladden their hearts and uplift their spirits in this, their time of need!”

Ku Lon shook her head ruefully. “I must say, your ability to say things like that with a straight face is very impressive,” she allowed. “But I expected you some time ago, you’ve been delayed.”

Kuno frowned with offended disgust. “I was held and questioned for some time by base-born peasants claiming the right to dictate my actions. I was strongly tempted to punish them as they deserved, but in the end decided to be magnanimous. But be warned, my magnanimity is at an end!”

Ku Lon shook her head again in reluctant admiration and motioned at the seat across from her. “Sit, there are things you need to know.”

Kuno stared at her for a few moments, then nodded and sat, not noticing Mu Tse moving to stand directly behind him. “Very well, a few minutes will make no difference. But be warned, as much as it would grieve me to strike one of your ancient years, punishment will be swift if you seek to prevent me in my quest!”

Mu Tse twitched, but Ku Lon just chuckled, then straightened and put on a sober expression. “Tell me, noble warrior, your family is of the most ancient blood, is it not?”

Kuno nodded proudly. “Indeed it is — there are families that may better us in wealth and power, but few that can do so in tales of valor and none in lineage. The Kuno line stretches back to the first arrival of our people to these sacred isles and beyond!”

The white-haired elder nodded in approval. “And that means that your family knows of the ancient stories, passed from parents to children, of the history of your people long forgotten by the masses of humanity except in part in the most ancient legends?”

Now, Kuno was glaring at Ku Lon in ill-concealed suspicion. “Yes-s-s-s,” he drew out slowly, “but such stories are not to be shared with the peasants that make up most of our society — not even with one of your years and skills.”

Ku Lon nonchalantly waved off the statement, reflecting on moments repeating themselves. “There is no need to share them with me, for I already know them. Tell me, young warrior, does the name Princess Usagi mean anything to you? What of Princess Yasuko and Queen Serenity?”

Kuno stiffened, then lunged to his feet and reached for his bokken, only to find his arm pinned behind his back and the razor-sharp tip of one of Mu Tse’s many daggers resting against his neck. Careful not to move, he glared down at Ku Lon. “Witch!” he spat out in impotent fury. “How have you learned those most sacred of names!?”

“Sit, child!” Ku Lon demanded, nodding at Mu Tse, who reluctantly released Kuno and stepped back, though keeping the dagger at the ready. A fuming Kuno retook his seat under Ku Lon’s stern gaze, and she nodded. “Better. As for how I know those names, your ancestors weren’t the only bodyguard regiment to fail in its duty four thousand years ago.”

With a gasp, the shocked kendoist asked, “ _You_ are the descendants of the Lost Ones?”

Ku Lon chuckled. “So, that is what you call us? Yes, we are — a few thousand of us left in the mountains of China.”

For a time, Kuno simply sat and stared at the tiny elder in awe, then rose and bowed deeply. “I did not know! Please, forgive any offense I may have given in my ignorance.”

“Sit, sit!” the now faintly embarrassed Ku Lon insisted, and the kendoist yet again took his seat, then frowned slightly at Ku Lon.

“While this is joyous news indeed,” he said, “why did you need to hinder my quest to tell me now?”

“Because,” Ku Lon replied with a sad smile, “I must tell you that your ‘quest’ is over — your loves are beyond you. When Happosai sought to violate the pigtailed girl, the one you have labeled ‘the foul sorcerer’ fought to prevent the assault. He failed, at the cost of his own life. But in his failure, he bought time for the pigtailed girl to awaken to her true destiny, and in her awakening kill her attacker.” Kuno drew in a shocked breath, and Ku Lon nodded. “Yes, she is Princess Yasuko, the one we have awaited these many centuries, and so as far above you as you are above the common herd and beyond your reach. But her awakening has been traumatic, and she will be withdrawing from Nerima seeking peace — and her newest handmaiden, Akane, will most likely be leaving with her.”

For a time Kuno simply sat, tears streaming down his face. Finally, he rose and bowed to the ancient matriarch. “My thanks for your words, however painful the knowledge they bring might be. But, if my loves are beyond my reach, I must at least offer my services as a guardian for these most precious of maidens on their travels.”

Ku Lon shook her head regretfully. “It shames me to have to refuse such loyalty, but at this time men are the last thing she wants around her, and she already has bodyguards.”

The tall kendoist frowned down at Ku Lon, crossing his arms across his chest. “To date, you have manifestly failed in that task. Why should I trust you with it now?”

Behind him, Mu Tse’s dagger twitched again as his face twisted in anger at the accusation, but Ku Lon remained calm. “Because, child, circumstances have changed. Before, the princess was unaware of her destiny and so would have rejected the protection we would have liked to give her. Until her memories awoke, not even Lady Pluto could intervene. But now she _is_ awake, and will not escape our eye again.”

Kuno stared down at the tiny woman, again awestruck. “Lady Pluto!” he finally gasped out. “ _She_ is involved in this!?”

“Yes,” Ku Lon replied, “and has been these past two years. But until the princess awoke, even her hands were tied. But now she is freed to take a more active role in Princess Yasuko’s life. I do not think you need to worry overmuch for the princess’s safety.”

Kuno raised his eyes and stared at the wall behind Ku Lon for a time, then nodded. “You reasoning cannot be denied,” he admitted in a defeated tone, turning toward the door to the café. At the door he paused, then without turning around asked, “You will be with my ... with the princess and her handmaiden?”

“Yes, we will,” Ku Lon said softly, and Kuno nodded, straightening.

“Then let them know, that if ever they have need of my wealth, my blade, my life, they have but to ask — all that I have or am is theirs.” Without waiting for a reply he strode through the door and was gone.

Mu Tse stared at the now empty doorway. “That was actually sad, in a weird, twisted sort of way,” he mused, and Ku Lon nodded agreement.

“Yes, it was,” she said, “but we have other concerns now, and it is time for you to be returning to your post — Part-Timer.”

Mu Tse shook his head ruefully. “I’m never going to get rid of that nickname, am I?” he complained as he disappeared into the back to the sound of Ku Lon’s chuckles.  A few seconds later Mu Tse’s duck form flew across the room, out the door, and off toward the Tendo dojo.

/oOo\

As Ukyo busied herself about the kitchen handling the dinner rush, she heard the door from the street open, and again stared over the counter, only to slump once more as another familiar face entered — a valued repeat customer, but not the face she was looking for. Then the chef caught a whiff of the beginning of smoke and rushed back to the stove to grimace at the sight of yet another okonomiyaki blackening around the edges. Sighing, she scraped it off the stove and flipped it into the garbage, and poured out the batter for a replacement — again.

As she carefully added the toppings, she glanced at the clock on the wall and found her vision growing blurry. _He didn’t come._ The thought echoed through her mind on an endless loop, try as she might to force it away. _He didn’t come._

Angrily, she wiped at her eyes and slipped a finished order onto a plate and hit the ringer to alert Konatsu. It was Nabiki, she tried to convince herself, Ranma didn’t know she’d been there that morning, hadn’t known she’d fought to keep Kuno away from him, didn’t know how much she was worrying about him! But all along, Nabiki’s words sat in the back of her mind, laughing at her — _And that’s why he hasn’t been by to see you since, right?_

The gorgeous crossdresser she employed as a waitress (in appearance, at least) stepped up to the counter and took the order, and Ukyo gave him a bright smile at odds with the tears slowly trickling down her cheeks.  Konatsu returned her smile, only to have the smile change into a worried frown as soon as he turned back into the dining room. He pasted the smile back on as he placed the plate in front of an eager customer, stopped by a booth to apologize to yet another customer for a late meal, hurried over to the newest customer. Placing the new order up for Ukyo, he paused for a moment to glance at the front door. _Where are you, Ranma?_ he thought with an indecipherable mix of pity, happiness, and shame.


	12. Consequences

Akane glanced out of the corner of her eye at the almost full plate in the lap of the redheaded girl sitting next to her on her bed, and sighed as she watched Ranma push the food around without taking a bite. _Should I say something again? Sure, the last time he — she took a few bites, but I’m beginning to sound like a nag ..._

A knock sounded and Kasumi’s voice came through the door. “Ranma? Akane? Dinner is almost over downstairs, I ... I think it’s time.” Akane sighed in relief and looked over at Ranma. The smaller girl set aside her plate and stared at the door with the oddest expression on her face, a mix of relief and apprehension and anger... After a moment, Akane called out, “Thanks, big sis, we’ll be right down!” Reaching over, she took hold of one of Ranma’s hands. “Come on, Ranma, let’s get this over with. Everything will be all right, you’ll see.”

Ranma looked over at her, and smiled a strained caricature of her normal cocky grin. “ ‘Course it will, Ranma Saotome never loses, right?”

“Right!” Akane cheerfully agreed, carefully ignoring the way Ranma’s voice had cracked slightly on the last word, and rose, pulling her love to her feet. Together they headed for the door, and Akane smiled to herself when Ranma didn’t let go of her hand.

The two were still holding hands when they walked through the doorway into the family room.  Akane felt the demon sleeping at her core stir as she saw the fathers’ eyes light up at the sight, and took a deep breath. _Wait,_ she silently told herself, _just wait. In a few minutes the pressure will be gone, and we can relax. Sure, Dad will be disappointed, but what’s done is done, and he’ll just have to live with it. And Saotome-san ..._ She gave Genma a vicious smile, and her demon relaxed somewhat at his slight flinch.

The two girls walked over to the low table and sat at their empty places, and Nodoka, sitting next to her husband, frowned slightly at the two. “It is not proper for you two to be holding hands like that while Ranma is female. What will people think? The rumors could be ... bad. And Ranma why are you currently a girl? It is not manly to keep this form any longer than you have to.”

Ranma winced, and Akane felt her anger stirring again, and opened her mouth ... and Nabiki spoke before she had a chance to say ... whatever she’d been about to shout.

“I can answer your questions, Auntie,” she said, unusually serious and without a hint of her habitual smirk. Then the smirk made its appearance in response to Nodoka’s quelling frown. “I have good news and bad news, and I won’t even offer my usual family discount — this time it’s free!” Then Nabiki froze, and glanced at Ranma. “Uh, Ranma? I’m sorry ...”

Ranma just shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, ya wouldn’t be you if ya didn’t talk money. And thanks fer offerin’ ta break the news, but it’s my problem.” Looking at the three adults, Ranma said, “Okay, the good news is that Happosai attacked me this morning, and this time he didn’t survive.”

For a long moment the parents simply sat and stared, but finally Soun whispered, “It is true? The Master is finally dead?”

“Yes,” Ranma responded, “and the police have investigated and done the ... the autopsy, and everything, and say he’s dead of a freak lightning strike.”

“Yes!” Genma shouted, slapping his old friend on the back. “Now _we_ are the Grandmasters, and when the schools are joined, the Anything Goes school will be the most versatile, powerful, and famous school in Japan!”

“Except you’re going to have to come up with another way to join the schools,” Akane ground out, gritting her teeth, and the two men stared at her.

“Another way to join the schools? Why?” asked her father, and Ranma sighed, slumping.

“Because whatever killed Happosai destroyed the curse, too, while I was a girl. I’m stuck like this now, will be fer the rest a’ my life,” she said, staring at the table, and all three adults stared at her, thunderstruck.

“How do you know?” Genma finally asked.

“Cologne said so,” the redheaded girl replied, “and you know how long she’s tried ta get me ta marry Shampoo. Now that’s impossible, too.”

Suddenly, Nodoka drew in a deep, shuddering breath as her eyes teared up. “Ranma, this ... you can no longer be manly, and the contract —”

“No longer applies,” Nabiki finished firmly, and smiled wryly when Nodoka looked hopefully at her. “The contract specifies that if your _son_ isn’t manly _he_ and your husband must commit seppuku. But you no longer have a son, and never will again. So, no son, no contract.”

Nodoka frowned, obviously conflicted, but Genma laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “The girl is right,” he said firmly. “The contract is voided with Ranma a girl.” After a long moment, Nodoka nodded and gave her daughter a relieved smile.

“I’m glad,” she softly said. “That contract was the most foolish thing two young romantics did, and it has been nothing but a burden ever since.” Looking at Ranma with a hint of mischief, she added. “And since I no longer have a son to be a man among men, I will simply have to make my daughter a woman among women.”

Everyone stared at her in shock and Ranma felt panic rising inside her, until Nodoka started to chuckle, then at the sight of her daughter’s stupefied face the chuckles turned to laughter. Rising, she circled the table to kneel and embrace Ranma. “Forgive my little jest,” she whispered. “And whatever help you need, simply ask.”

“Thanks, mom, I will,” Ranma said, and Akane snorted.

“No, you won’t,” she said. “You don’t know how to ask for help.” The still slightly stunned black-haired girl grinned at Nodoka and her love. “Don’t worry, Auntie Nodoka, I’ll keep you up to date on Ranma’s needs.”

“That will certainly be a great help to your stepmother,” Genma said solemnly.

Akane stiffened as Ranma simply closed her eyes with a sigh.  “Stepmother?” Akane growled as everyone else stared, and Genma nodded.

“Of course. Since Ranma is now permanently a girl, the only way to fulfill the contract is for hi — er, _her_ to marry Soun.”

“Sorry, but that contract is no longer valid, either,” Nabiki said with a smirk. “It calls for a marriage between your child and Dad’s — nothing in there about a marriage to Dad himself. And since that’s now impossible ...”

Genma frowned, then glanced at Soun. “Well, old friend, we will simply have to make a new agreement.” Then, as Soun (along with Nodoka and Kasumi) simply stared in stunned silence, he added, “It is the only way for the schools to be joined.”

Soun gave the two girls sitting across from him a troubled look, glanced down at where the table hid their still-clasped hands, and nodded with a sigh. “You are right, old friend, it is the only way.”

Akane stared at her father, stunned speechless. _He didn’t ... he knows how me and Ranma feel about each other and he just ... why ..._ Then the demon at her core exploded to life, and she found herself rising, bringing the table up with her, dishes flying everywhere, Ranma pulling her mother out of the way, Nabiki rolling to the side while Kasumi sat frozen in place. Akane’s vision narrowed on the two men in front of her even as her world went red, then the sight was blocked by the table slamming down on them and the Hammer sprang to life in her hands and Genma smashed through the window and her father was lying against the wall and she started toward him and ...

And someone was hanging onto her arm and yelling at her to stop. Slowly, the tunnel vision widened and she turned to find herself looking at Ranma. “Enough, Akane, enough,” the redheaded girl said in a more normal tone as the hammer disappeared and she pulled Akane into a hug. “They’re out, and they aren’t worth it.” Finally, Akane drew a deep, gasping breath and nodded, and Ranma tightened the hug for a moment, then stepped back and looked over at where Nabiki was sitting up from her roll. “I’ll get packed and be on my way,” she said.

Nabiki nodded.  “You have Tofu’s new number?” she asked.

Ranma nodded. “Yup, I’ll give him a call in a week, find out where your new apartment is.” Looking over at Nodoka, she added, “Mom, when ya want ta pass a message to me, let Dr. Tofu know.”

A now completely confused Akane, Kasumi and Nodoka looked back and forth between the two girls. “What is going on?” Nodoka asked.

Ranma looked at her feet for a long moment, then said, “I’m leaving.”

“What?!” the women other than Nabiki shouted, and Ranma winced.

Nabiki spoke up, saying, “I and Ranma thought we knew how the fathers would react, and we were right — though you were a pleasant surprise, Auntie Nodoka — so we made plans. I was already planning on moving into my own apartment for college, this just speeds things up and means I have to find a two-bedroom apartment instead of one.”

“But why didn’t you tell me!?” Akane demanded. “And when did you ... the stop at the infomat. Did you even use it, or just figure this out?”

“Oh, I used it, to look for two-bedroom apartments for rent,” Nabiki said. “As for why we didn’t tell you, well ...”

“ ‘Cause you were so certain yer dad would finally turn against Pop,” Ranma finished. “It wouldn’t make a difference in the end either way, and ... and I really didn’t wanna fight with you.”

“And so you’re just going to leave, just like that!?” Akane demanded, and Ranma nodded.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’m stayin’ around here where Pop can pester me,” she said, then dropping her gaze to the floor, whispered, “Come with me?”

Akane’s building anger blew out in a heartbeat, and she stared at Ranma, then looked around the room she’d known all her life. It had always been home, but after what her father had just done, and without Ranma ... _It isn’t home, not anymore.  That’s where Ranma is._  She walked over to the redheaded girl still studying her feet and embraced her. “Of course,” she said softly. “Just give me time to pack and we can be on our way.”

Ranma returned the embrace and for a long moment simply stood there, then drew a shuddering breath and looked up with misty eyes. But all she said was, “I’ll help ya pack, most a’ yer stuff you won’t need until Nabiki has an apartment for us, anyway.”

Then, breaking the embrace, Ranma walked over to hug her mother. “I’m sorry ta be running out on ya, Mom, I really didn’t expect ya to ... to accept voiding the contract ...” Ranma choked up, and Nodoka simply returned the hug for a long moment, then reluctantly pushed the two apart.

“Go on, don’t keep Akane waiting,” she said in a husky voice. “Just ... just let Dr. Tofu know when we can meet.”

“You got it, Mom,” Ranma replied in an imitation of her normal cocky manner, then walked over to take Akane by the hand and the two headed for the stairs.

/oOo\

Soun groaned as the room slowly came into focus. What had happened? He’d been at dinner, then Ranma and Akane had come in, and ... he jerked to a sitting position, then grabbed at his head as his vision blurred out in a stab of pain. Moving slowly to avoid a repeat, he looked around at the mess of the family room, table still overturned, dishes scattered about — and only his eldest daughter present, looking up from a medical textbook.

“So you are finally awake, Father, Akane must have hit you harder than Ranma thought,” the normally serene girl said in a brittle tone, and nodded toward the broken window. “Genma-san is still unconscious.”

“Akane, Ranma!” Soun gasped. “Where are they?”

“Already gone, I don’t know where,” Kasumi replied. “But Akane gave me a message for you as they left.” She paused for a long moment, then as Soun started fidgeting said, “She said to tell you that you will need to find a new heir, because you now only have two daughters.”

Soun reeled in shock, tears beginning to flood from his eyes, and Kasumi smiled grimly as she rose to her feet, duty done. “Oh, and Father? You are going to need to hire a housekeeper — Dr. Tofu has offered me a job at his new clinic, and after tonight’s events I have decided to accept. I will be moving out tomorrow. Good night.” And she calmly walked out, leaving him alone in the wreckage.

/oOo\

Ranma sat back as she finished putting the last tent peg in place, and looked at the tent in the moonlight. “It’s gonna be a little tight, especially with all the blankets the two of us are gonna need ta wrap ourselves up in — it’s gonna get a bit chilly tonight,” she said, but Akane shook her head.

“No,” she said, “When we combine our blankets we’ll be fine.”

Ranma turned to stare at Akane. “Ya mean, share the blankets?”

Akane nodded. “Yes,” she replied, then added, blushing, “and ... a lot more than just blankets.”

Ranma stared at her for a long moment, then stuttered, “Y-Y-Ya d-don’t mean ...” her voice trailed off and Akane reached over and pulled her into a hug.

“Making love?” she whispered in the pigtailed girl’s ear with only a slight quaver. “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean ... when I said the fact you’re a girl now doesn’t matter, I meant it.”

“O-Okay,” Ranma managed to get out as she returned the hug, “but it’s gonna hafta wait. I’ve ... heard it can get kinda messy and we don’t exactly have a furo handy anymore.”

“Well, if we must,” Akane sighed with a mixture of regret and relief, and the two sat and stared out across the night sky, such as they could see through Tokyo’s light pollution.

Finally, Akane shivered, and the two broke apart to grab the blankets and move into the tent. After they’d settled down side by side with the blankets over and under them, Ranma said, “Akane? There is something you _can_ do for me. Promise me you’ll give up the hammer.”

“What!?” Akane almost shouted, anger flaring. “But that’s my most effective technique, why do you want me to give it up?”

“Fer the same reason I’m gonna be givin’ up my confidence-based attacks — ‘cause if we keep usin’ them we’re gonna end up dead or worse.”

“How? And what could be worse?” Akane demanded.

“Ending up like Happosai,” Ranma responded, and Akane froze, her anger snuffed out by her shock.

“Ending up like Happosai?” she repeated, And Ranma nodded.

“I’ve been thinkin’ about it fer awhile now, and today just cinched it. I’ve always been cocky, Dad insisted on it, but I’ve been gettin’ worse. And yer temper has been getting’ harder ta control, more violent — and today ya completely lost it, attackin’ yer own dad. I think it’s ‘cause a’ the emotion-based ki attacks. What if Happosai is how we’d end up if we keep usin’ them, to the point where being cocky or angry is all we can be?”

Akane thought back over the past weeks and months. It couldn’t really be true, could it? But if Ranma believed it, enough to give up techniques that had saved his — her — life, perhaps ...

“I’ll think about it,” she finally said, then added wistfully, “Besides, I don’t have much to get angry about any more, now that we’re out of the dojo. But now, it’s been a long day, let’s get some sleep,” she finished with a yawn.

“Right,” Ranma agreed, and the two cuddled up together and drifted off to sleep.

Outside, a purple-haired cat looked down from a nearby tree and sighed. _It’s going to be a_ long _night,_ Xian Pu thought. _I hope the other warriors great-grandmother has called for get here soon._


	13. Reunion

Usagi followed Rei into the now long-familiar family room at the shrine where the Inner Senshi had been meeting for six years, and looked around a little wistfully.

Come on, Usagi, it hasn’t been _that_ long,” Makoto said, following behind her along with Minako and Ami.

“Yes, I know,” Usagi said, “but I miss our little weekly meetings.”

“So do I,” Ami responded as the five girls spread out to the seats around the coffee table, reaching for pastries next to the teapot. “But with everyone scattered — me in medical school, Makoto in chef school, Minako with her singing career, you and Mamoru getting married — weekly meetings just haven’t been practical, especially since there haven’t been major threats in the last couple of years, just an occasional leaker a couple of Inner or Outer Senshi can handle, or even just one.”

“True,” Minako said as she flopped into her seat. “So is there anything important to bring up, or do we go straight to the gossip-fest?”

“Actually, I _do_ have something to report, though I don’t know how important it is,” Usagi said. “This morning, the Moon Crystal flared for a second or so, I have no idea why. I called Ami and asked her to look in on it as soon as she finished her morning classes — Ami, did you find out anything?”

Ami shook her head. “Not much. The Mercury Computer recorded the power flare as well as a simultaneous flare of Silver Millennium energy centered on Furinkan High School in Nerima. From the timing they must be related in some way, but there’s nothing to indicate what caused them.”

“Nerima?” Rei said thoughtfully. “Not good, with the way Setsuna told us to stay out of that district. Have you tried to contact her about this?”

“Yes, I have, but nobody’s picking up the phone at their home, and her secretary tells me she isn’t in her office.”

“That’s because today has been a _very_ busy day,” came a voice behind Usagi, and she shrieked and leaped out of her seat, pastry flying across the room.

“Setsuna, you promised to stop _doing_ that!” she shouted as she whirled to face the emerald-haired woman that had just appeared out of thin air behind her, now with a slight self-satisfied smile and ... carrying a briefcase?

“I know I did, Princess, but this is the first meeting I’ve been to in awhile and I just couldn’t resist — tradition, you know,” Setsuna responded.  She walked around and placed her briefcase on the table and took an empty seat. “The rest of the Outers will be joining us in a little bit, as well. So, Princess, how’s married life treating you?”

Usagi blushed but calmly said, “It’s been a lot of — fun, though a bit lonely the last few days with Mamoru on assignment in Australia and Luna visiting Diana in the future.”

“Oh, is that the reason for the two-hour phone call last night — nobody to share your bed, so you go looking for someone to share an ear?” Minako teased, and Usagi’s blush deepened.

“Well, maybe a little,” she mumbled, and Setsuna chuckled, then sobered and straightened, focusing the attention of the girls on her as she snapped open the latches on her briefcase.

“I was going to show up at tonight’s meeting anyway, there’s a new enemy coming and later we’ll need to talk about that, but the power flare this morning Usagi and Ami were just talking about has overshadowed everything. It involved someone you may not have heard of, a young man named Saotome Ranma.” Setsuna glanced around to blank expressions from all except Makoto, who had jerked upright. “You recognize the name, Makoto?” the Senshi of Time asked, and Makoto nodded.

“Yes, he’s a legend in the martial arts community in Tokyo — I wouldn’t believe a word of the stories they tell about him, if I weren’t a Senshi. What we’ve experienced makes those stories barely believable.”

“Well, those stories are probably true, or at least could be,” Setsuna said, and looked over at the Senshi of Ice. “Tell me, Ami, in your studies of Silver Millennium history have you come across the Life Dancers?”

Ami nodded. “Yes, I have. But they were healers, not warriors.”

“Yes, they were,” Setsuna agreed, “but that was because we’d discovered magic for personal combat and never tried to develop the human life force, ki, as a weapon. Since the Fall, Oriental martial artists have, and the results have been — impressive.” Reaching into the now open briefcase, she pulled out five folders and passed them out to the girls. “Here’s an overview of Ranma’s life I’ve made up.”

The Inner Senshi opened the folders and started reading the pages they contained, but within a few minutes Rei jerked to her feet as her hands clenched, crushing the papers she was holding. She opened her mouth as she turned to Setsuna, but her question went unasked as Usagi turned white as a ghost, dropped the papers and bolted from the room. A few seconds later, the sound of retching echoed back to the room, followed by a flushing toilet and water running in a sink. A minute later a shaking long-haired blonde walked back and rejoined the others, wiping her mouth.

“The Cat Fist training?” came a voice from the other doorway, and everyone turned to find a young green-haired woman, an apparent bishonen with short blond hair, and two teenagers standing there.

“Chibi-Usa!” Usagi shouted, charging and sweeping the pink-haired teenager up in a hug while her frail-seeming dark-haired friend chuckled and shook her head.

“Aw, come on, let go!” Chibi-Usa demanded, grimacing and rolling her eyes. “I know it’s been awhile, but still —”

“You’ve grown so much!” Usagi whispered, holding her neo-daughter at arm’s length, eyes going misty, and Chibi-Usa shrugged, ignoring her only slightly watery eyes.

“Yeah, well, maybe I’ve missed you too, a little,” she muttered, then more loudly repeated, “So I take it you just read about the Cat Fist training?”

As tears started rolling down Usagi’s cheeks, Rei growled. “Yes, what kind of monster can do that to his own son!?” she demanded.

“A complete idiot,” Setsuna replied. “And while that’s the worst, the rest isn’t much better.” Motioning to the folders the two had dropped, she continued, “Finish up, so we can continue.”

Rei and Usagi obeyed as the four newcomers took seats of their own, and for a time the room was silent except for the rustle of paper and the occasional gasp, growl and curse. Finally, a greenish-tinted Usagi put down the last page and everyone in the room turned to look expectantly at Setsuna.

“That made rather horrific reading,” Ami said, “and I _really_ hope we can do something about Genma, if only to turn him over to Child Services, but why is this important to us? Why did the Moon Crystal do something to Ranma this morning?”

“Actually, it was more _for_ Ranma than _to_ him,” Setsuna replied, and quickly told of the morning’s attack by Happosai. By the end, Usagi was curled up with her neo-daughter hugging her tightly, Rei was again up and stalking back and forth, while the other three Inners and three Outers were simply staring at Setsuna in shock.

“That poor boy,” Usagi whispered.

Finally, Ami shook her head. “Agreed, but _why_? Why did the Moon Crystal reach all the way across Tokyo to help out Ranma like that?”

Setsuna’s usually serene mask cracked just a moment, then she sighed and looked over at Usagi. “ ‘Why’ is actually simple. Princess, how much do you remember of your little sister? Anything at all?”

“Quite a bit actually,” Usagi replied, looking up with a wistful but confused expression. “I just never mentioned little Yasuko because I thought that if there was anything we could do for her you’d have said so, given how fond you were of the little nuisance. But what does —” the blonde froze, then suddenly she was on her feet, fists clenched. “Ranma is Yasuko reincarnated, isn’t he?” Usagi shouted.

Setsuna nodded, then flung herself out of her chair to avoid the normally good-natured young woman’s attack. The rest stared open-mouthed for a long moment as Setsuna back-pedaled around the room blocking and dodging Usagi’s wild swings and kicks, then as a red-faced Usagi’s brooch materialized in her hand Haruka jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around their leader, pinning Usagi’s arms to her side.

“Usagi, stop, that’s enough!” Haruka shouted, holding a desperately struggling Usagi until she went limp in her arms.

“You knew all along!” Usagi shouted at Setsuna, tears streaming down her face. “You knew, and you let it happen! How could you, she loved you!”

Setsuna’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Yes, Princess, Ranma is Yasuko reborn. But no, I didn’t know — not until a few years ago, and by then it was much too late to interfere. Ranma’s sense of honor wouldn’t let him just walk away from that _clusterfuck_ ,” — everyone jerked at the obscenity Setsuna had snarled, she never swore! — “and the only way I could have made a real difference myself, beyond what a friend was already taking care of, would have involved killing a number of self-centered but not really evil clueless idiots.”

“So what, they deserve it!” Usagi shouted, but Setsuna shook her head.

“No, Princess, long ago to avoid becoming a monster I came up with some rules governing how I use the foreknowledge the Time Gates give me to interfere with people’s lives, and I learned a hard lesson fifteen hundred years ago on how important those rules were.”

Instantly Usagi softened, asking gently, “What happened?”

Setsuna shook her head again. “I don’t have time right now to tell the true story behind the legend of Camelot, but I saw a very unlikely but glorious possible future if a certain idealistic, brilliant and charismatic young British war leader’s dreams came true and I did whatever it took to push those dreams forward, falling in love with him along the way, not that I ever told him — he was very much in love with his wife. I managed to push the odds of success up to eighty percent, and then a misstep at the Battle of Camlann and Artus and Medraut achieve a mutual kill instead of Artus slaughtering that traitor like a pig and it all falls apart. It took the direct intervention of a very good friend to keep me from slaughtering that traitor’s army to a man.”

Setsuna whispered, “Belldandy had warned me of the hole I was digging for myself, but I just wouldn’t listen, and then she got herself in real trouble saving my soul.”

Everyone stared in silence as the Senshi of Time gazed at a memory that no one else could see while tears rolled down her cheeks.  Finally, Usagi shook herself free of Haruka’s now slackened grip and walked over to pull the older woman into a hug. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and Setsuna returned the hug for a long moment before breaking away and wiping at her face.

“Not your fault, Princess, it was an honest misunderstanding,” she said in her normal serene tone, and returned to her seat, motioning the rest back to theirs. “Anyway, the Moon Crystal intervened because Serenity had soul-linked both of her daughters to it, and so when Ranma found herself in a situation that all her skill and willpower couldn’t fix she reached for a link she didn’t even know she had.”

“But Sestsuna, what about what happened to us this morning?” Chibi-Usa asked. “You said it was some kind of ... of temporal realignment, that the future doesn’t go to Crystal Tokyo anymore! How could what happened to Ranma change the future that much?”

“No more Crystal Tokyo?” Usagi whispered as the rest stared at Chibi-Usa then whipped their heads around toward Setsuna, and she nodded.

“No, not for us,” she said, “and a good thing, too.” Looking around at all the incredulous stares, she sighed. “Girls, all along I’ve emphasized the glories of Crystal Tokyo, and I’ve never lied. But I’ve also never really spoken of the price paid to get there. There just wasn’t any point — no real way to avoid it, and no point in ruining your present lives by telling you of the horrific war waiting for us a few decades down the line. But now, thanks to the Moon Crystal Ranma has been frozen in female form while remembering her short life as Princess Yasuko, and that makes all the difference — over six billion people don’t have to die to give the human race any future at all.”

“Six _billion_ people!” Ami gasped.

Setsuna nodded, and then Rei was on her feet.  “All right, time out!” she shouted. “That’s one shock too many, let’s take a break and catch our breath.” Looking down at the teapot filled with by now lukewarm water, she picked it up and added as she headed for the door, “I’ll get some more water for tea.”

/\

A little later, everyone had settled back with a pastry (or two, or three, or ...) and some tea, and Ami spoke up. “Okay, so we aren’t going to have a horrific war in a few decades that kills off almost all of the people on earth, and it’s all because Ranma has been stuck as a girl and remembered being Princess Yasuko — how?”

“I can’t tell you, not yet, or it doesn’t happen,” Setsuna replied, and gave a small smile at the groans of frustration that rose on every side. “For now, you’ll just have to take it on faith that things will work out better all around.” _And you won’t have to turn to each other for romantic relationships, after having a few husbands grow old and die on you,_ Setsuna added to herself.

“Okay,” Chibi-Usa said, “so you can’t talk about the future — we should all be used to that by now, I certainly get an earful from Puu-chan every time she sends me here. But this morning you said that my Crystal Tokyo is still out there, that you can get me home, but that this world’s future doesn’t go there anymore. What’s up with that?”

Ami perked up at the question while the rest looked confused, and Setsuna hid another smile. “I suppose an explanation is in order, a bit on how time travel works. The first rule of time travel, one that you’d be amazed how many would-be manipulators of the future never figure out, is that you cannot travel back into your own past.”

“What!?” Chibi-Usa shouted, “But what about all this time I’ve been coming here?”

Setsuna shrugged. “Your first trip was to a timeline that was exactly the same as the past of your own timeline up to the point you arrived.” Looking over at Ami, she asked, “Ami, you’ve read the science fiction writers’ speculation of a timeline branching as it travels into the future?” At Ami’s nod, Setsuna continued, “They don’t quite have it right — rather than one timeline that branches out, all the timelines that will ever exist already exist, with the ones with identical histories ‘growing’ next to each other, then breaking apart as different events separate them and coming back together as events realign their futures. So, when Chibi-Usa came back to us, she traveled back along the ‘string’ to the point her ‘Puu-chan’ ” — giving the pink-haired girl a small fond smile — “sent her to, then landed in another ‘string’ identical to her own.

“Now, the important thing to remember about the future is that it isn’t so much like a spread of branches reaching out from a common trunk, as a string coming up into the center of a spider web — the past is what it was, but the future has many possibilities, with multiple possible results coming from a particular event, and multiple possible events resulting in a particular result. So even with Chibi-Usa’s presence changing things it was still possible, even likely, that we could end up with a future enough like hers that we could be in the same ‘branch’. However, with Princess Yasuko’s awakening the chance of a future anything like Chibi-Usa’s is so poor that we are effectively in a separate ‘branch’. The massive, instantaneous headaches that hit me and Chibi-Usa at the same time the Crystal intervened were because of that change — me because of the sudden, massive change hitting me through my link to the timestream, Chibi-Usa because of her connection to the ‘branch’ we separated from.”

Ami had leaned forward and put down her teacup, face intent and bright with curiosity. “Okay, I think I understood all that,” she mused. “Has this happened to you before?”

“Yes, twice,” Setsuna agreed with a nod. “Once around 9 B.C., when a Roman general led several legions into an ambush in the woods of Germany that basically wiped them out. Before that, the Roman Empire, at least the _third_ one, had been destined to eventually conquer the world. The second time was when the Japanese military settled on an attack on Pearl Harbor and a southern strategy in the Second World War. Before that, the odds were on a northern strategy into Siberia, the United States didn’t get involved in either Japan’s war in China and Siberia or in Europe against the Nazis, and the rest of the century was a Cold War with Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire on one side and the United States and the British Empire on the other — not a happy future.”

“So those were the only times really unlikely things have happened?” Ami inquired, frowning thoughtfully.

“Oh, no, unlikely things happen all the time,” Setsuna corrected, “but the vast majority of unlikely events just don’t _matter_ , not in the long run — the ‘inertia’ of major trends pull things back into the ‘path of least resistance’.”

“Got it!” Ami said with a happy grin. “But what about —” She glanced around at the blank, uncomprehending expressions on all sides. “But maybe we should discuss this later?” she asked, and Setsuna followed her gaze.

“Perhaps you are right,” she agreed. Clapping her hands to shake everyone out of their daze, she said, “The important thing is that Chibi-Usa’s Crystal Tokyo is on a different timeline, I can get her home easily enough by taking us to a timeline that’s still part of her branch, but we can’t do that until after we take care of the latest menace she came back to help with, and a discussion of that menace will have to wait until things have settled down a bit. Meanwhile, we need to take care of Ranma.”

Usagi perked up instantly, face twisting with anger. “We are _not_ leaving my little sister in that madhouse!” she insisted, and Setsuna nodded.

“Of course not,” she said. “Nor do we need to worry about that. In fact, by now she should have left the dojo and be setting up camp in a nearby park. I’ll be right back.” Standing up, she stepped into nothingness and vanished, then reappeared a moment later. “I was right, she and Akane are getting tucked away for the night right now. Shall we go and offer them somewhat more comfortable accommodations until Nabiki finds an apartment?”

“What, that violent maniac is with her!?” Rei shouted, but Setsuna frowned repressively at the Senshi of Fire.

“There are reasons for that violent side to her, and they are going to be fading soon,” the emerald-haired woman said. “And whatever other problems she may have, she loves Ranma dearly and is walking away from the only home she’s ever known to stay with her. So get to know her before you judge her too severely.” Then glancing at Haruka’s inquiring look, Setsuna nodded. “Yes, you and Michiru will have some competition for ‘oddball’ couple of our little club,” she said, “But let’s not have the little quip you’re about to come out with.”

Haruka raised her teacup to her mouth to hide her little grin, and was just taking a long sip when Minako spoke up. “Well, a bird in the hand is worth a hand in the bush,” she said brightly, then yelped as Haruka’s mouthful of tea sprayed across her. “Hey, what was that for?” she demanded as Michiru pounded on her coughing lover’s back while the rest of the Senshi just stared at the perky blonde. Looking around at all the stares, Minako asked, “Uh, what did I say?”

Finally, Makoto just shook her head and stood up, her henshin wand appearing in her hand. “Minako, sometimes I swear you do that on purpose. Come on, let’s go collect the lovebirds. Will they be staying with Usagi until Nabiki finds the apartment you mentioned?”

Setsuna nodded as she rose. “Usagi _did_ mention that she’s a little lonely, and she and her sister have some catching up to do.”

“So let’s go!” Usagi shouted joyfully, jumping to her feet and bounding toward the door, accompanied by chuckles from the rest as they quickly followed her.

/oOo\

Ranma awoke to a series of thumps outside the tent, instantly alert and cursing the blankets she was wrapped up in as she struggled to get free to face whoever or _what_ ever was outside. Her struggles knocked Akane around, and the black-haired girl jerked awake.

“Whazzup?” she asked blearily, only to find Ranma’s finger pressed to her lips.

“Shhhh!” Ranma hissed softly, finishing getting herself unwrapped, and a now wide-awake Akane nodded. The redhead stealthily gathered her feet under her, ready to spring out of the tent, when a voice froze her in her tracks.

“Yasuko? Are you in there?” came a voice that Ranma had heard only in very old/new memories and she simply sat in her crouch, her head whirling. “Ranma?” the same eerily familiar voice came, and she slowly crawled out of the tent and stood up to look around at the ten fuku-clad figures in a half-circle around the tent’s entrance, then focused on the long-haired blonde in the center. “Yasuko?” the blonde asked again, and Ranma nodded.

“Yeah, it’s me,” she said in a quavery voice. “Usagi?”

“Yeah,” the blonde said and then Ranma was throwing herself into the arms of her no-longer-so-much-older sister with a shout to wake the dead.

Akane crawled out of the tent and stared at the embracing pair in confusion. “The Senshi? What’s going on?” she asked, fighting to control the anger she felt rising at the sight of Ranma embracing another girl, hands twitching as they tried to curl to receive a hammer’s haft.

Another of the Senshi with emerald-colored hair stepped forward beside her and turned to observe the embracing pair. “Relax, it’s just a family reunion,” she said, and Ranma’s head twisted at the sound of her voice.

“Puu?” she whispered, and the Senshi nodded.

“Yes, Yasuko, it’s Puu,” she quavered, then when Ranma opened out an arm in invitation stepped into a three-way hug.

Akane’s anger had vanished but now confusion reigned, and a brown-haired Senshi took “Puu’s” place.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a sister and old friend that Ranma hasn’t seen in four thousand years,” the Senshi said. “Oh, I’m Sailor Jupiter.”

“Tendo Aka — just Akane,” Akane replied. “So you are all from the Moon Queendom?”

“Oh, you know about that, do you?” Jupiter asked, surprised.

“Yeah,” Akane nodded. “Cologne told us all about it.”

“Who’s Cologne?” Jupiter asked, then smothered a huge yawn. “On second thought, you can tell us about it later, let’s get you two packed up and settled somewhere more comfortable.”

“Where?” asked Akane, and Jupiter nodded toward the three still locked together.

“With Ranma’s very long-lost sister, where else?” she asked, then looked around at the rest of the Senshi watching: Mercury, Mars, Saturn and Chibi-Moon with fond smiles, Venus wistfully, Neptune and Uranus with their arms around each other’s waist and happy smiles beaming. Sighing, Jupiter strode toward the three. “Come on,” she said. “As much as everyone is enjoying the show, it’s been a long day, let’s get the new lovebirds settled and call it a night.”

Reluctantly the three separated, though Ranma was blushing bright enough they could see it in the moonlight.

“Right, you two are staying with me!” Moon enthused, and Ranma smiled happily, then sobered and glanced at Akane with a worried look only to brighten with her love’s bemused nod of acceptance.

“Great!” the petite redhead agreed, “I’ll have everything broken down in a sec.”

/\

In the tree above the tent, Xian Pu watched as the blankets were folded up, the tent quickly broken down in spite of Moon’s insistence on helping, and everything packed up. As the twelve girls disappeared into the shadows of the park’s trees, the purple-haired cat stood and stretched, then jumped out of the tree and trotted off toward the Cat Café. _There’ll be no keeping up with those ones_ , she thought with a happy “oh well.” _Besides, Lady Pluto’s affairs are her own, and not for us to mess with. Great-grandmother will have to contact her and make her own arrangements._

Thinking back to the reunion she’d observed she started to purr, only to be interrupted by a huge yawn of her own. _A happy day for Ranma after all, but the brown-haired one was right — it’s been a long day._ Thinking of a report to her Matriarch, a quick meal, and then to her own bed, the strangely-colored cat went from a trot to a run and also disappeared into the park’s shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the interests of full disclosure, I "borrowed" the idea of the Life Dancers from Ozzallos' excellent work, "A Time Apart" (one of the writers that kept me from writing my own for awhile).


End file.
